


Silent Warrior

by Darling_Dixon08



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 00:02:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 33
Words: 55,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20023213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darling_Dixon08/pseuds/Darling_Dixon08
Summary: Shannon is always running away from her troubles. Even before the dead started coming back to life, she was on the road searching for something better, trying to make a new life. Who would have thought she'd find something better during an apocalypse.She barely escaped the flames of her so called "home" when she's found by another group. Haunted by her previous encounters, she remains shielded from letting anyone in. As time moves forward her shield lowers for one person. A warrior in her eyes, Daryl, begins to peal away the shame and embarrassment that shadowed her from the beginning. As the world worsens, will their relationship blossom?





	1. Alone

My entire group is dead and it's time to be on my own again. They were the first group of people I've let myself be around in what seems like forever, and now they're lying 80 miles back, being eaten, or worse. I'm still not sure how I escaped after going back in to find someone, anyone, to come with me. They were everywhere, the dead, surrounding every door and exit possible. As I ran around hearing the screams of my fallen survivors or getting a glimpse of a dead corpse, I kept my feet moving beneath me. I ran to the back of the compound and remembered the old cars they stored in case of something happening. Only, they never planned on this happening, how could they! The biters haven't taken over this area completely yet, so I lower the gun I've been using and pull out the knife I've had since the beginning. I have to get in a car and out of here as quietly as possible, this can't be the end for me, I'm just getting my life back. As my heart races with fear I know I can't go back the way I came in. I have to find another way out, even if I do get a car. I quickly come up with a plan. I know that it's not the best plan but it's the only one I got at the moment. I dodge an older biter, one who's bones are showing through the deteriorated skin, and slash it across the face with my knife. It stumbles a little but doesn't give up. I force the knife into the top of its head and it drops at my feet in a heap. I open the truck door quickly after yanking the blade out and find the keys to the truck sitting on the seat. I jam them into the ignition and it roars to life. I hack at the dead zombies arm I took out and it quickly separates from the body, already decayed away. I take a moment to look where I came from and the fire and biters are quickly approaching the room I'm in. I remind myself to slow my inhalation to protect my lungs and then I move on. I need to get this boarded up barn walls down and I'm going to use this truck to do so! I stuff the dead arm onto the floor of the drivers side and set it up so it pushes against the gas pedal. The truck roars its engine as it tries to move while being parked. I take a deep breath and throw the truck into reverse before jumping out of the way. I roll onto the ground and go to glimpse at the truck.

"Wait up!" I hear someone call after the wall breaks free and the truck blows through the debris before hitting a tree with force. I turn to look to where the sound is coming from but I can't find anyone. The smoke is getting thicker and I squint to look past it. I heard someone, didn't I? I ask myself while trying to search through the haze.

"Who is that? Hurry!!" I call back moving closer to the flames to help any one who may still be alive. 2 biters are suddenly closing in and I take my gun out and shoot them as quickly as I can. "Anyone? Come on! I can't wait much longer!" I call out again while continuing to move, only this time back over to the motorcycle that's stored between two cars. I find the keys and turn the bike on. It comes to life louder than the truck and I jump on in fear as the biters try to pile through the entrance now, the wood around the door becoming weak from the fire and the weight of the dead. I have to leave. I say to myself. I can't wait any longer. I regret leaving whomever it was behind but I haven't heard anything since the first call. Maybe it was just my head making it up, maybe I imagined it for my own comfort. Or maybe they're dead now. I push the thought from my head as quickly as it came in, I can't think like that, not yet, not until I'm out.

I put the bike into motion and it wobbles under my weight. I throw it forward and plow through the broken debris, gunning it away from the now lifeless home. I only road on a motorcycle once, a few years before the breakout. It didn't go very far and I got pretty scraped up when I fell off of it. I still remember the blood flowing down my arm, the pain in my leg and the scrapes down my side. I push away the memory when I swerve and focus on the dead grass ahead of me. I can't stop now, I have to keep going. I have to find somewhere safe for the night.

I look down at the gas gauge and deduce I have about another 130 miles or so left before I run out. I get to the highway and swerve through the abandoned trucks and cars. 30 miles later and I pull off and take a side road that soon turns to dirt. I travel another 40 miles and I run into a little old town. It's main road has one broken light and old buildings. I can't help but think that the light was broken even before the breakout. I drive straight through to avoid the biters and park the motorcycle. I put it behind a tree and cover it up with some branches and leaves. I grab the knife from my belt and hold it close to me. I watch for some time before I make a plan. The town looks untouched. Off the beaten path, and I know how lucky I am to have found it. There's a pharmacy that looks the most intact. The windows are dirty but not broken. The door is shut closed and attached. This is the area I'll clear out first. I can move the shelves to block the windows and doors. I can sleep if I'm quiet, I think to myself.

I wait till sunset before I move. I want it to be as close to dark as possible without it actually being dark. I take the blade out of my belt and it gently rubs against the hammer. I take a step forward feeling the comfortable weight of my gun against my back. I inch slowly forward, mimicking their steps and staying quiet. I make my way to the door and as I reach for the handle, 3 biters close to me spot me and turn my way. I wave my knife above my head and hit the first one hard. He falls down and I wave it across my face to hit the dead woman. It doesn't penetrate her brain enough but I knock her back against the other and they fall together. I jump on top and quickly take them out. Some biters farther away have now noticed the motion and are walking my way. I open the pharmacy door and bang on it quickly. There's no sound. I kill off 3 more biters before I go inside and shut the door behind me. I push a cabinet against the door as quick as possible. It reaches the door just in time as a few biters are now pushed against it, their shadows covering what light is left from the setting sun. I sigh. I'm stuck for now. I take a quick glance around. There's still plenty of food left that's edible and I make a pile on the floor after putting another shelf against the door for protection. I've managed to cover the front windows with multiple shelves and feel pretty comfortable with my sound traps to fall asleep for a bit. I light a few candles I found first, trying to warm myself up. My eyes are getting heavier so I blow out the candles and lay my head down onto the cold ground. I wake up to the sound of pounding on the door and windows. I peak through the towels I covered them with from behind the shelves and. notice more biters then when I first got there. They've been here the entire night. Who knows when they will move on, or if they even will. I know the commotion they are making will only draw more here. With daylight peering in I decide to take inventory of the pharmacy supplies and medicines located behind the counter. I climb over it and scan through things I've never heard of. There's Lorazepam, Singulair, Accoloate, and hundreds more. I'm lucky to have found this place, but know this is going to take awhile. I grab an arm full of medicine bottles and sit on the floor. I begin to read the labels and decipher through things I think are important for to me to have by reading the descriptions. I make a pile for myself and a pile of things I will put away. I can't help but hope someone else will come along and find something they need. Hours pass and I have a pretty large pile of supplies. I know I need to get a bag to put them in. Something that when moving, won't make the loud noises of pills jiggling around. I move around the pharmacy looking for something. There's a door in the back that's kind of blocked off. I knock on it loudly and wait. A groggy voice begins to sound out and I put my ear closer. I want to know how many could be in there before I open it. I put my ear close to the door and suddenly it bursts open hitting me in the head. I fall to the ground and the biter stumbles out. It doesn't take long for it to spot me and stumble forward, ready to finally eat. I crawl backwards, dizzy from hitting my head and reach for my knife. Only it's not in my belt. I look to my side and see it over near my make shift bed.

"Shit!" I call out frantically. I pull out the gun and shoot it once in the head before it can eat at me. It falls to the ground and I move a few more inches back. "Shit, shit, shit!" I repeat as the noise outside gets louder. Whatever biters weren't at the front of the store, were about to be within moments.


	2. Escape

I stand up slowly, wiping the blood from my head. I walk over to my things and grab my knife in an introverted panic. I can't make any more noise like that, not again, or I won't survive the night! I go back to the room the biter came from and shine the flashlight inside of it. It's an office, with a desk in the corner of the room with a useless computer and phone on top. There are papers strewn across everywhere and blood staining the floors. I look and see the dead body I took out on the floor behind me, and there's a gash in his arm. I wonder if he bled out from an injury or if he did it to himself. I think back to the day I found out that only a head shot would kill you dead enough to stay dead if you were going to take the suicide route out of this crappy world. It was sickening to know we all have this inside of us. I push the memory from my head and keep searching the room. My eyes land to the side of desk and on the floor is a backpack among some other things. I quickly wrap all the medicine I can into the clothes I have and stuff them into the bag with the non perishable food I found. I leave about half the pile I made, unwilling to risk my life to hold on to things I may never use. I peer back out through the shelves and notice the door and windows to the store are now fully pressed up against with biters. I need to find another way out, and fast. I run to the back of the pharmacy area and there's a door to a family bathroom. The door's already open, so I quickly pound on it to see if there are any dead inside hiding where I can't see. After a moment waiting, I rush through and find that there's a small window above the toilet I can fit through. I climb on top of the porcelain seat and jiggle at the window. It's stuck. I put some more effort into it but the window won't budge, it's painted shut. I have to break it, I tell myself frantically. I take out my gun, grabbing it by the barrel. I hit the glass hard with the butt of it and it shatters open. Pieces fly outside and inside of the window sill, scraping my face, and drawing more blood. I work through the rest of the glass with my arm and peer outside. There are only a few biters around and none are currently extremely close. I want to clear the glass from the sill, but I hear a shattering come from the front of the building. Enough of them pressed up against it and are now making their way inside, their dead groans slowly getting louder. I don't have time to clear off the glass or wrap my hands for protection, they are walking towards me and moving inside. I need to move, and I need to move now. I throw the bag out of the window and hoist myself up. I wriggle through the tiny space and fall to the ground with a heavy thud.

"Ahhhh" I let let out a small scream of pain. I landed on my ankle and it twisted in the wrong direction. I look up quickly and watch the biters come closer to me. I lift up the bag from the ground and limp backwards keeping my eye in front of me. I stay away from corners and continually rotate my head around keeping a view of 360 degrees the best I can. Although my ankle is twisted, it's not broken and I'll be damned if I let that get me killed. It's been awhile since I've been on my own, but I've done it before and my instincts are kicking in. I don't move fast enough and two biters reach me at the same time one right in front of the other. I take them both out, stabbing one in the head and pushing it into the other. As he stumbles against the dead weight, I lunge the knife into it's eye, twisting it for good measure. I look back up and more keep coming. The only way out of this area is going through the main road, where all the other biters are. I kill 3 more that got closer and turn around to pick up my speed, putting as much distance as I can between us, while trying to ignore the intense pain coming from my foot. I get to the main road and quickly observe my surroundings. All of the biters are pushing into the little shop now. I can see the cracked glass of the door, and it's the only part that hasn't broken yet. The side windows are filled with the dead, looking for me, what they wanted as a meal. I am relieved to be out of there and still fighting. A walker from where I exited comes close, bringing me back to reality and I kill it quickly. I'm still not in the clear and need to keep myself focused on moving. I gimp down the street doing my best to walk over and around anything that will make any sort of noise. I move forward through the tiny town and run as fast as my twisted ankle will let me. I get a few feet passed the now broken into store and I fall forward, scraping my face on the asphalt. I turn quickly to look at what I fell over. As soon as I see it, the biter is reaching for my leg and actually grabbing at my pant leg. It gets a hold of it and I scream instinctively in fear and anger. I kick it in its face, knocking it's jaw off. It loosens its grip from the force and I kick it more, making sure to kill it. As I stand up I notice the swarm of biters have turned their attention from the store, to me. I'm the living object they are after, I'm the only thing they want to eat.

"Shit!" I say loudly again, aware that it really doesn't matter how loud I am after that. I turn and run. Although I'm moving fast, it's not fast enough and they are getting closer. I scan in front of me and spot a tree I could climb. I bee line for the old oak, determined to reach it. I get close and know I need to drop my bag if I want to make it up before they all reach me. I throw the bag with all my force hoping it's landing causes some attention and takes them somewhere else. They won't care about a motionless bag if they find it and I'll need it if I make it out of this alive. I start to climb the tree, I first put one foot on a branch but it snaps easily under my weight. My leg dangles and a walker gets close. I quickly knock it in the head before it gets a good grip and find another spot to put my foot. I can't fall now, or I'll never make it up. The branch holds me and I continue my way up, higher and higher. A few minutes go by and I am safely in the tree. The biters are now surrounding the tree reaching their decayed hands in the air. The oak tree is old, and sturdy, I know that much. It can withstand a couple thousand pounds of dead humans pushing into it. The round base helping keep them off balance and tumbling into each other. They wobble into one anther, eyes trained on me, waiting for the moment I fall and they can feast.


	3. Found

I look down at my watch and see that it's 4 in the afternoon. I've been stuck in this tree for a little over three hours. The sun is blazing on my skin and I try to cover up with some leaves to protect it from burning further then it already has. I don't know what to do next and know that I'm stuck. I begin to try and think of ways to cause a diversion, to direct their attention else where long enough to get down and away. Everything I need, or could of used, is in the bag I threw away from me. I sigh. I grip the handle of my gun tightly, knowing what it will come down to if they don't move on in a few days. I'm happy there's a few bullets inside, at least I can take out a few of the dead before taking myself out.

"Guys, I found something!" A male voice rings out. I look down and see someone gripping my bag just feet away from where I am hiding.

"Medicine!" He shouts backwards "with some food!" He adds on with excitement in his voice. "Whoever was here must have dropped it!" He says more to himself then whoever he was shouting to before. "Maybe recently?" He shouts, as if thinking out loud.

"Shhh!" I holler back to him. I look back down at the biters and some of them are moving to the voice of the man hollering in the woods. Although I should be relieved, I'm not. I look back to where the man was and he's pointing a gun at me. "You need to run!" I holler down to him with a warning. Even though he's trying to steel my shit, I can't let him die because of it. I'm still human inside. The walkers are feet away from him and will chew him to pieces if he doesn't get a head start. I know this may be the distraction I need to get away, but I don't want it to cost another person's life. I've been around that too much in this new dark world.

He looks down with a glance and sees the biters coming at him through the bushel of trees. He shoots the closest ones with head shots. However, he doesn't move back to get away. He lets out a whistling sound. "Go!" I holler out again! "there's too many!" I add trying to urge him to move. Suddenly, gun shots echo through the woods. The sounds of multiple guns rings through my ears and I look down to the biters below. They are falling two or three at a time. I look around and can see 2 others shooting from a distance. A woman, and another male, not including the one still holding my bag. Another few minutes pass and the bullets come fewer and farther in between. As the tree is clear from the dead, I take the opportunity to climb down slowly. Being careful of my ankle. I limp over to the man and he now has his gun pointed on me as whomever else is out there takes out the few lingering behind us both.

"Thank you" I reach out my hand trying to ignore the gun and show him I'm no threat.

"Weapon down!" He shouts to me.

"What?" I asked startled, confused at his demand. I tried to warn him of the danger, I was helpful, and he's treating me like a criminal.

"Weapons down!" He repeats louder this time. I look around and see the other shooters also aiming weapons to me now that the dead are officially dead with bullet holes in their dome. I slowly reach for my knife and put it on the ground in front of me. I do the same with my gun. "6 steps back" he says still holding the gun up. I do as he says, familiar with how people like this work. After stepping back he puts his weapon down and picks up mine, placing it into his waistband.

I eye him curiously, but I'm suddenly being patted down by the woman I noticed before. After a few moments she speaks out "clear" and the other man puts his weapon down.

"Didn't think I could feel more vulnerable than being trapped in a tree with biters surrounding me" I shrug trying to lighten the mood, as well as get a feel for who they are. They stare at me emotionless in response.

"Are you with anyone?" The red headed man asks coming through tree's from where he was posted during the shoot out. I shake my head no to respond.

"How long you been up there?" The woman asks in a thick country accent.

"A couple hours. I raided the pharmacy and things didn't go so well after that" I look down to my foot.

"You're on your own?" The one with my backpack says.

"I am now" I admit openly.

"What happened?" The female asks.

"My camp was attacked. I'm the only one who made it out" I confess looking down at the biter by my feet. It has an arrow threw its eye ball. I tilt my head unaware any of them had a bow on them and just stare into the hole it made.

"When?" The Asian fellow asks me with curiosity in his eyes, and my attention is pulled back to them.

I shrug not wanting to talk about it with strangers "recently" is all I say to his question. They must sense the severity of the situation and don't push any further, which I'm thankful for. My watch beeps and I quickly turn it off with a push. It's 5 o'clock now and the hot sun, still blaring, begins to set.


	4. Waiting

Another minute passes as everyone continues to stare at me "can I have my bag back now?" I ask the Asian fellow whose holding it across his arm. He slowly lifts his arm up to lower it off and hands it back to me. I reach for it slowly, still feeling eyes blaze into me. "Are you looking for anything in particular?" I ask them zipping the bag back up offering to help "If you can clear it out, there's some pretty good stuff left." I add on, putting the bag on my back now.

No one answers my question and things stay awkward between us all. I decide to stay quiet now, looking between the 3 of them, shifting the backpack on my shoulders as the silence grows.

"Are we just gon' sit around here all day or what China man?" A man comes out of the woods with a twang in his voice. The sunset is blocking me from seeing his face and I put my hands over my eyes to try and get a better view.

"I'm Korean" the Asian says as if he's said it a thousand times with a roll of his eyes.

"What should we do with her?" The man with the red hair and beard asks. I take a step back feeling threatened by his comment. What should they do with me? What the hell does that mean, I'm a person, like they are, they shouldn't do anything but let me go.

The man comes closer and I notice the bow and arrow strung behind his back, so he's the one with that weapon, I think to myself. He gets close to my face and stares me down. I stand up straight, trying not to look weak or threatened, although fear is coursing through me. I don't know how well that is playing off but he eventually takes a step back and spits out to my right. "I'll get out of your way." I finally say feeling the hostility linger around me when I no longer feel his breath on my face.

"No, yer comin' with us." The man with the arrow says before stepping around me to grab the arrow from the walkers head. He wipes the blood with a handkerchief and replaces it into the quiver.

"What?" 3 of us say together at his remark. I don't know who the other 2 voices are, but I'm a tad relieved they had the same reaction as me. Why the hell do they want me to go with them?

He looks to them and speaks again "we ain't just gonna leave her. We'll take her back and talk with Rick." He defends his comment. He looks back to me "anything left in that store?" He points in the direction I escaped from earlier.

I shrug "some medicine, toiletries, some heavier foods I didn't want to carry. Pretty much everything but what I took." I respond.

"Water?" The woman asks me. I nod my head and she smiles with some relief.

"Let's make a plan." The Asian says before walking towards a biter and killing it with his knife. He wipes it off on his pants and puts his hand out towards me "Glenn" he introduces himself formally.

"Shannon" I say back to him reaching my hand over.

"Look, we're going to need to take you back to our car and tie you up. But you'll be safe there" He says gripping my hand tightly so I can't remove it from his grip. He pulls a zip tie out of his pocket as I try to step back but he's too quick and secures my wrists together.

"What?" I shout out as it clicks. The red headed man quickly jumps in to restrain me while covering my mouth to keep me quiet. They cover my mouth with tape before moving away from where we were standing

The one who was restraining me throws me over his shoulder "calm down rag doll" he mocks at me fighting against him. They carry me a mile or so down the dirt road to a car while I struggle most of the way. I decide to save my energy for when the timing is better and I could actually escape from them. They put me in the back seat and zip tie my feet to the back of the passenger seat. They pull the tape from my mouth and I rumble profanities as the red head and Asian walk back in the direction we came from.

"I'm Maggie" The woman says to me turning from the driver side once the two men left us. "Sorry about all of this, but you can never be too safe" She apologies in a southern bell kind of way. I want to believe her sincerity, but I'm tethered to the seat of a car.

"Yea, I'm starting to realize that" I grit through my teeth with an eye roll.

It's been a few minutes before she speaks again "what happened to your camp?" She asks looking through the rear view mirror.

I give her a shrug as my answer and she accepts it. More time passes in silence before I decide I can't take it anymore and speak up, they are just gonna keep asking anyway. "I don't really know what happened" I start to explain looking out the window at the distant grey smoke, fading away as the place is probably all burnt down now "We were all doing our daily jobs and things just started to go crazy. Walkers came from no where and the fences came down. Things started to go up in flames and I knew I had to get out." I shrug giving her the only explanation I know.

"It just went up in flames?" She asks. I nod back. "That seems strange. How many of you were there?" She asks another question.

"16" I say out quickly.

"And you sure you are the only one to escape?" she keeps asking me questions.

"I waited as long as I could before I left, hoping someone would emerge from there, but no one did." I finally look in her direction with sadness, "It's just me again."

She nods back at what I said and asks another question "how did you get out?"

I sigh reliving the horror "My job was to figure out the ways biters could get in and out through the fences. I would go out, kill any that showed up over night and see if there are any weak spots. I knew the most vulnerable area for me to escape through and got out."

"No one came with you?" She asks skeptically

"I tried, the 2 people I was around wanted to go back for their family. I told them there was no time but they left me. The biters and fire were closing in, so I left" I explain further, "I actually wen't back in to find someone, anyone..." I trail off letting her come to the conclusion that's obvious. The shame creeping into my heart and tears start to form in my eyes. It's then that I realize I should have stayed just a bit longer and tried to help whoever called out to me. Maybe then I wouldn't be here tied to this car, maybe then we'd be safe and I wouldn't be alone.

"Sorry" she mumbles under her breath.

We don't talk again. The sun is now giving off purple and orange colors from setting and I see the silhouette of the three men appear from the woods. They carry bags over their shoulders and have more blood spatter on them then the last time I saw them.

They throw their bags into the back of the truck and get into the car. Maggie turns the key and the engine goes to life. Glenn and the man with the bow sit next to me. She puts the truck in gear "wait! My bike!" I say remembering my ride. I don't know why I shouted it out, and quickly slunk down hoping they ignore me.

"Your bike?" The red head repeats turning his head in my direction.

"Ya, I got here by motorcycle, I hid it in the woods." I explain to them now that I opened my mouth.

"Where?" The arrow packing man asks me. I try to explain where but he gets annoyed quickly. He takes out a knife and cuts the zip ties. He slides out of the truck and gestures for me to follow. "let's go" He waves the knife towards the woods.

"What?" I ask startled, nervous and a bit afraid.

"Show me where it is.." I get out of the car slowly. "I'll be right behind you." He says to the 3 left in the car before shutting the door.

"you sure?" Glenn asks, "we can wait" he adds.

He shakes his head "naw, go head. They need what we got." The man nods but the truck stays idle "now!" he hollers out angrily and the car drives off slowly.

I start my walk slowly to where I left the bike. I can't defend myself against him, they still have my weapons in the car. I decide to go along with what he says, until I can find an opportunity to escape.

We get to the bike 15 minutes later and he removes the branches. A small smile creeps onto his face and I thought I hear him mumble "hello beautiful" but I couldn't be too sure.

"Get on." He gestures to the bike.

"You want me to drive?" I question him. I could barely drive myself on this thing, yet alone two people. He nods and waits for me to get on. I do as he says and he sits behind me. Only, I feel the knife rest on my rib cage.

"Don't do nothin' stupid" He murmurs into my ear before I start the bike.

Whatever you say, I respond to myself before pulling away, my steering wobbly with the weight of another person.


	5. A Long Walk

I drive slowly over the dirt road, barely keeping us up right. I can tell the man holding on to my waist is annoyed and tense by the way the knife is resting against my ribs. He is trying to keep it steady but I feel it prick my skin through my clothes a few times.

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm new to driving on 2 wheels." I holler back to him. He grunts and curses at my words and I keep my focus on the road. I need to come up with a plan, a way to get away from him and the people they are taking me to. I don't know who they are or what they want from me. I can't risk that, I've come too far to be taken again, to have everything taken from me one more time. I try to think of things but my mind keeps coming back to the harsh reality. I have no weapon, and my ankle is injured. How far do I really think I can get before I get attacked by him or the dead? All my instincts are fighting the way I'm feeling but deep down I know it's the truth. I try and keep old memories from flooding, but as the light softens and it gets darker, they find their way creeping back in.

We finally reach the pavement and I slow down before we reach it, waiting for him to give me a direction. "Go right" He says, so I do. It gets a little bit easier to ride on solid road. I drive for another 10 minutes before remembering that I'm low on gas.

"Shit" I stammer when I notice the gas gauge inching closer and closer to E.

"Shit wha'?" The man yells angrily over the sounds of the bike.

"Gas. I'm low on gas.." I holler back to him. He grunts even louder and gestures for me to pull over. When I do he jumps off the bike and starts to yell at me.

"What the fuck? We had extra gas in the truck, we coulda brought it along!" He kicks dirt up from the side of the road.

Although I have no way of defending myself against him if I have to, I can't stand him yelling at me, I don't care who they think they are, I'm a fucking human being. "I was being held captive, remember?" I snarl with sass "my mind was a bit pre-occupied trying to figure a way out if thus mess!"

"A way out?" He laughs. "And where would someone like you go? Our place is the safest place for ya, you should be thanking us" He mocks turning his back away from.

I swing my leg off the bike quickly and and tap him on the shoulder, he turns back around and I get in his face "Someone like me? What the fuck does that mean? Because I'm a girl I'm easily taken down or disposable. For your information, pig.." I stress the insult "I was on my own for months before I joined my camp. I did just fine on my own! I don't need an arrogant asshole like you to protect me!"

He steps back with rage filled eyes "I meant because of yer ankle, princess!" He nods down at my foot with a dirty look.

"Right, of course beca--" I start to fight back but he interrupts me.

"Shut up" He says.

"I beg your--" I respond with a bad taste in my mouth.

"SHHH!" He demands putting his hand over my mouth. My eyes grow wide with disdain but quickly fade when I hear what he was listening for. We turn ourselves in the direction we came from and see biters emerging from the woods. "Quick, get on!" He lets go of my mouth before racing past me and on to the bike. He kicks the stand up and turns it on swiftly, the engine roaring to life. Without further thinking, I grab a hold of his waist and he speeds forward, putting as much distance between us and them as fast as he can. I hold on tightly as he zooms down the road, easily forgetting the danger I'm still in. We drive for about 15 minutes before the bike runs out of gas completely. We hop off and he steers it into the woods. He starts to cover it up with leaves and branches, as I did earlier, taking care of it. "We're walking from here" He says after we finish covering it up.

"How far would you say?" I ask him, knowing I'll slow him down with my injured ankle.

"50 miles, give or take" He says taking off his pack and reaching inside. He takes out 2 flashlights and a water bottle. He takes a swig from the bottle and hands it over to me. I eye him eerily but he just keeps his hand out. I finally take it from him and gulp down half of it. I hand it back to him and he places the pack back on his shoulders. "We'll go a little further into the woods for coverage" He says starting to walk into the darkness.

"why don't you just go on without me? I'll just hold you back anyway." I say to him looking down at my foot, trying to negotiate my way out of the situation. He snarls back to me, making it clear that he won't let me out of his site. I sigh frustrated, "What about your friends? Will they come looking for you when you don't come back?" I ask, hopeful that we can just wait until they come looking.

"Maybe" He shrugs, continuing walking. When he considers us safely into the woods he starts walking forward again. I look down at my watch and make note of the time, 7:33.

We walk silently for 2 hours, steering clear of any biters and listening for any cars on the road. Another 30 minutes go by and I can't take the silence any longer "So, I don't even know your name" I whisper from behind him. Unable to keep up to him with my injury. He huffs out air and just gives me a sideways glare. It lasts only seconds before he turns his attention forward again. I roll my eyes in defeat and follow.

"Gerald" He finally tells me his name 5 minutes later. He doesn't turn to tell me so I don't completely hear him.

"Gerald?" I ask making sure I got it right

"Daryl" He repeats this time turning his head so I could actually hear it.

"Oh. Daryl" I say back. He nods and continues.

That was the extent of our conversation for another 5 hours. Along the way Daryl had to kill 6 biters, they were all spread apart which made me feel better under the circumstances. Daryl pulls the knife out of the 6th biter and I speak up "I have to stop.." I say to him.

"No, we have to keep going" He urges.

"I can't, my ankle." I say leaning against a tree to take the pressure off of it. I've done everything I could mentally to try and ignore the pain, to keep my pace consistent but it's too unbearable now.

He sighs and grunts and walks with heavy feet back to me "let me see it" he demands when he's closer. He kneels down to get a better look and I lift the lip of my jeans up. His face doesn't register anything and I lean down to unzip the boot and show him. He stands up after a quick look "You need to wrap it" He says pulling a handkerchief out of his back pocket. He gestures for me to sit and I do, leaning my head back against the tree.

He pulls at my boots and I wince in pain, careful not to make too much noise. He takes my sock off and wraps the ankle tightly. "Thanks" I say to him when he's finished. He doesn't respond and stands up, turning his back to me. I slowly and carefully replace the boot on my foot. I stand up and limp over to where he moved forward to. "I can keep going now" I inform him. The tightly wrapped handkerchief eased some of the pain and I can give it another go.

"There's still a while to go and it's safer to rest in the dark, we'll camp for the nighht." He tells me.

"It is?" I ask. He nods and continues to look around. A few seconds pass before he moves.

"Stay here" he says walking past the tree I was resting on while removing the bag from his shoulders. I nod and walk slowly back to the tree to lean against it. My instinct kicks in and I know this would be a good time to leave. There's a decent amount of wood coverage and he may not even care to come look for me. I'm one injured girl with no weapons to protect myself, I'm dead for, is probably what he would think. Although the thought crosses my mind, I decide against it at the moment. He's helped enough wrapping my foot and letting me rest now, they'll be a better time to escape when I'm better equipped to survive.

Daryl comes back 10 minutes later "Smart not to run. Alright, follow me" He says gesturing for me to walk forward. I limp behind him and a few feet in front of us he set up a place for me to rest. "Careful" he says after he bent under a makeshift noise maker.

"You did this in the 10 minutes you were gone?" I ask while bending under a string covered in empty tin cans, doing as he said and being careful.

"Most of it was already made" He shrugs. I walk further into the circle and put my back against the tree he used. I go to take off my boot but he stops me "bad idea. If we have to move, you won't have time to put it back on"

"Right" I say, easily forgetting the situation. There are still walkers out there to worry about.

"Rest, because we have to start moving before sun rise" He tells me "just a few hours tops, princess" he mocks.

I nod and adjust myself so I'm kind of laying against the tree. I used my sweater as a pillow and get as comfortable as I can. The sunburn from earlier is now making me shiver, and I lay with my eyes closed for a few moments before opening them again "you aren't going to get some sleep?" I question him still standing at the edge of the entrapment. He shakes his head. "You sure? I have a watch and can set it to go off in a few hours.." I explain

"No, I'll keep watch" He says.

"Alright.." I say closing my eyes again. "Thanks Daryl" I yawn out before drifting off, oddly comfortable, given the situation.


	6. A Returning Stranger

"Joey, please don't do this!" I beg him. I grasp his arm with desperation. He turns his head away from me, refusing to look me in the eyes. "Joey! NO! Don't do this! We can just go, we don't have to stay here!" I yell louder trying to get his attention, digging my fingers and nails into his arm. He doesn't move and a tall built man is suddenly grabbing a hold of my arm. I jerk it away from him but his grip quickly tightens and he starts to drag me back, his strength clearly more than mine. "STOP! NO! LET! ME! GO!" I yell and start to flail my feet and arms, trying to escape his grip. He grabs me tighter and the place I thought I could call home begins to get smaller. "Joey! Help! Joey, please!" I keep shouting towards him.

"Shannon, wake up." I hear my name being called. My eyes open and I sit up slightly. Daryl is kneeling next to me with his hand resting lightly on my shoulder.

"Oh. What?" I ask groggily.

He removes his hand and stands up "yew were sleep talkin." He walks away from me and starts removing the trap he set up "we should get going, sun'll be up soon."

"Oh. Right" I say "sorry" I add in a mutter while I stand up. I use the tree for support, feeling the pain of my ankle and I rub off what dirt and leaves I can before making my way over to the other side of the trap to help him.

We quickly but quietly put everything into his pack and start walking within 20 minutes. I limp behind him but I push through the throbbing pain. I can't afford to get left behind. I won't make it on my own, at least not yet. "Wait, we're heading towards the road?" I question him, noticing the foliage getting thinner.

"If they do come look for us, it'll be at sunrise" he says without turning. I nod although I know he can't see me and keep my eyes ahead.

We make it to the road just as the sun starts to rise. Daryl walks in front of me by a few feet and scans 360 degrees, his bow ready to swing into action if need be. After more minutes of silence, I speak up "how long you have the stryker?" I ask him.

His eyes finally meet mine for a second before he scans behind me. He continues his walk, talking to me without facing me "you know somethin bout somethin?" He asks, I barely see him raise his eyebrows at me while looking around.

"A little. I took archery in high school and.." but I hear a distant sound and stop talking. Daryl hears it too because he stops walking. He gestures for me to take cover by the trees and I make my way over there. He slowly walks back, bow at the ready, and huddles down next to me keeping his eyes on the road. "It's your friends, right?" I ask him but he doesn't respond.

"Daryl!" I vaguely hear. I sit up straighter and so does he. I turn my upper body to him in excitement but he puts his hand up telling me to cool it. We wait a few more minutes, as the car inches closer and we hear it again "Daryl!" Another few feet closer and Daryl is finally standing, walking back to the road.

The car speeds up and comes to a stop. The Asian man, Glenn, gets out of the driver side and quickly walks over to him. They pat each other on the back "what happened" he asks, his eyes raising just a little when he see's me limping a few steps closer. I notice the adjustment and stop where I am. A woman comes out of the passenger side and walks in front of the truck before stopping.

"I'll explain on the way back" He says walking forward. I stay where I am, unsure of where I fit in during this rescue. Daryl turns his head towards me and yells back "yew comin' Cinderella?"

I nod and limp my way to the truck. He hugs the older woman and I make my way to the back right door. I slide in next to the older woman and they turn the car around.

After we start moving Daryl explains that the motorcycle ran out of gas and we had to walk. He leaves out the part of me holding him back because of my injury, and I am thankful he is a man of little words. We drive for a little while before they turn onto yet another dirt road. Minutes pass but something starts to come into view, I lean closer to the window to get a better view. It's huge. My jaw drops with awe as the doors to their camp open and we drive inside. The wall is long and tall. I sit back in the seat astounded and nervous at the same time.

"We'll just bring her to holding and go find Rick" Glenn says as he turns onto a road.

"It's alright man, she can stay at the house" Daryl responds to him keeping his eyes trained out the window.

Carol inches just a little in the seat at his response and Glenn looks over at him with a sideways glance "you sure?" He asks, as if I'm some sort of threat.

Daryl just nods and Glenn turns the car around. He pulls up to a house and parks behind another car. The 3 of them step out and Carol leaves her door open, waiting for me to slide over and exit. I slowly exit the car and shut the door behind me. "She can get cleaned up and I'll talk with Rick" he says before walking away from the house.

My nerves pick up as the one person I was starting to feel okay around walks further away. Carol grabs my arm gently but I still jump a little at her touch. She removes her hand away and waits for me to step forward before she walks me into the house "you can get cleaned up upstairs" she gestures up a stairwell as we enter the door. I nod and begin up the ascending stairs. She follows behind me. I look to my right into the living room and see Maggie with 2 unfamiliar faces looking back at me. She smirks slightly with a little head nod before the wall covers my view and I turn my attention in front of me. I make it to the top of the stairs and turn left, towards the hall. I walk forward to the first open door and come to the bathroom. "There are towels and soap in the closet. I'll wait out here" She tells me.

"Wait, the shower works?" I say to her eyes open with excitement. She nods to confirm and her eyes focus on the wall in front of the door and she leans against the wall.

I turn away to walk inside but before I open the door she adds "water turns off after 10 minutes, we try to conserve."

I shut the door before leaning against it to take it all in. It's a clean, white and black bathroom with a tub shower. If the water turns off after 10 I won't have time to fill it up for a bath but running water is running water, and I am going to enjoy every second of it. I walk to the closet and pull out the soap and towels. I pull them to my face and smell them. They smell recently cleaned and are soft against my cheek. I put the towels on the rack and the soap in the shower. I slowly peel off the blood and dirt stained clothes I've been wearing for months and make a pile on the floor. I use the bathroom and my heart flutters when it actually flushes. I step into the shower and turn the handle up and to the left, putting it on warm.

The cold water pours out of the shower head and I giggle with excitement as it trickles down my body. I remember all the times I would wait to get in a shower until it was warm, letting the water waste. It's easy to regret those things now that showering in an actual shower is a rare to none occurrence in the world as it stands. I start to scrub the dirt and blood off of my body, wanting to get as clean as possible before the shower turns off. A few minutes in and I clean my hair with the lemon-scented shampoo. I lather it 2 times, making sure to scrub my scalp good. When I'm done washing out the second lather I reach for the conditioner. I rub it into my hair and wash it out quickly, not letting it sit. After rinsing that out, I have another minute or two just to enjoy the water. I sit down and lean my back against the porcelain. I let the warm water run over me until it turns itself off. I open my eyes when it does and slowly make my way out of the shower, careful not to slip. I turn the handle back to off before drying myself off with the towel and then wrapping it around my hair. I get dressed into my clothes from before opening the door to exit.

Carol is still standing where I left her, probably keeping tabs on me. She walks to the last door on the floor and opens it. Inside is a bedroom with a full size bed, a dresser, and a desk. She walks in and I follow "Maggie put out some clothes for you" She says gesturing towards the bed where a set of clean clothes lay.

"Oh, that's okay. I can wear my own" I shrug uncomfortably.

"You'll get them back, they need to be cleaned" She responds looking down at what I'm wearing.

"Ok" I shrug, not feeling in the right place to argue. I'm still being watched here, I'm not trusted. And I need to stay on guard.

She leaves the room and shuts the door behind her. I assume she is waiting outside of it again so I move quickly to change. I strip off my dirty clothes and make another pile on the carpet. I remove the towel from my head and rub my body again before putting on the under garments she left. They were both unworn, with tags on them, and I'm grateful for that. I slip on the pair of jeans and white t-shirt before turning back to the door. I open it and Carol leans up off of the wall.

"Stay in here, someone will come and get you. There's a brush in the top desk drawer" She nods her head in the direction behind me and I turn my head towards the desk. As my head is turned the door shuts. Not a moment more passes when I hear the lock on the door click. I look at the handle and notice the knobs have been swapped. These people have a way of locking me in places and I don't like it.

I sigh and turn away to go to the desk. I open the drawer and find the brush she was talking about sitting on top of other items. There are tampons, pads, deodorant, hair ties, and bobby pins in this drawer. I take the brush out before shutting the drawer. I open the next drawer to see a notebook, pen, tape, and a stapler. The final drawer of the desk I look into has hair gel, condoms, lotion, and cologne. A drawer for everyone, I think closing the drawer with a smirk. I stand in front of the mirror and brush out the knots in my hair. It takes me about 25 minutes to brush the knots out, the brush covered in dead hair. When I'm finished, I make my way to the bed and sit on it and it's like heaven to me. Although I had a bed at the camp, it was old and used, more like a cot. Not that I'm complaining, it was better than sleeping on the cold, hard ground. I let myself slip down under the covers and rest my head on the pillow.


	7. A New Place

His fingers trace up and down my arm in a circular motion. He leans his head closer to mine and whispers in my ear "you're my ticket out of the hunt and into the temple" his breath smells like bourbon and licorice. His other hand comes around to my face and he moves the hair in front of my eyes and adjusts it behind my ear. I lean closer to the door, trying to be invisible and clench down the bile sitting in my throat.

"Easy Clint, need her as pure as we got her" The driver says from behind the wheel, looking through the rearview mirror at us. My eyes find his for a moment and they are as dark as the road we are riding on. I quickly avert them out the window and try and imagine a better place. The man pushed against me laughs from his stomach before retreating just a little towards the middle of the seat.

"Let's go" an unfamiliar voice emits from Clint's mouth.

"What?" I ask confused.

"Let's go" I hear it again, only this time my eyes open and Daryl is standing over me, holding onto my shoulder with a light grip.

I sit up, aware of my location and he releases his hand. I nod and swing my feet out from the covers. I rub my eyes as I follow him out of the room. He waits as I slip my boots back on, careful of my injured ankle. He walks right down the stairs and out the door, ignoring everyone in the living room. I do my best to not look over but I can't help it and now see more faces in the room then before, all silent and staring at me as an intruder. I walk out the door and follow behind Daryl. We walk down 2 streets before we come to another house. He gets to the end of the balcony steps and the door is open for me. He nods for me to proceed and I do slowly. He stays where he is and I continue into the house. The model is the same as the one I was just in and the first room is the living room. When I turn the corner the first thing I notice is the bookshelves packed with books. I walk over to them and run my hands against the spines. Some are old and worn, and others look unopened. "You like to read?" A woman's voice asks me. I turn around and see her sitting in a chair, with a video camera on a tripod next to her.

I shrug "I guess."

She smiles and stands up "I'm Deanna" she reaches her hand out to shake mine. I lean forward and take a few steps to shake it.

"Shannon" I say back to her. She releases my hand and returns to her seat.

I sit down across from her, eyeing the camera with concern. "I want to ask you some questions. Would you mind if I record the conversation?" She asks putting her hand on the camera.

"Sure" I say, not really feeling like I had a choice "but I don't understand, I thought I was going to see Rick?" I say questioning the situation, not knowing who Deanna is here. I'm at least relieved the person in charge here has a real name.

She turns the camera on and it starts to blink, indicating it's recording "you will, I just wanted to talk to you first. So, Shannon, where were you before today?" she crosses her ankles together waiting for me to answer, a fake grin on her lips.

"I, uhm, was with Daryl on the road. Your people found me in this old untouched town I was scavenging and they took me back here." I say not wanting to get into detail.

"And why were you and Daryl on the road?" she asks, looking down at a notebook in her lap.

My head cocks to the side "didn't Daryl tell you all of this?"

"He did" She nods once, putting the pen to her lip "but I would like to hear it from you." she quickly points it at me before returning it.

"Ok.." I start slowly, wanting to recall it correctly "well right before they went to leave I mentioned I had a motorcycle and Daryl told me to take him to it. We were riding it back when it ran out of gas" I explain what happened.

"And where were you before they found you in that town?" She asks.

I swallow and look away from her, staring at the royal blue rug in the middle of the floor. I sigh, "I was at a camp some miles away. I was there for about 4-6 months I suppose."

"What was your camp called?" She asks

My eyes turn to her as I'm caught off guard "we didn't really have a name" I say confused

"Ok, and did they just take you in?" She asks next.

"Yea, I guess. I came across two of them when they were searching for supplies. One of them was injured and I had some things they could've used. I helped get them back and they let me stay."

She nods once again, writing something down before returning her attention to me with another question"Well, do you have any skills I should be aware of?" She asks.

"Skills?" I ask back, not following.

"Well, Daryl is handy with a bow, a great quiet way to rid walkers. Rick and Michonne are our" she pauses to come up with the right words "enforcers.. They will keep us safe from one another as well as the outside world." She says with something dark surrounding her eyes "I'm just curious if there is anything you can add to benefit our community?" The darkness leaves her eyes when they find mine again.

"Oh. Uhm.." I twiddle with a piece of string dangling from the shirt thinking "I'm pretty fast, I'm good at supply runs.." I shrug not really knowing what kind of skills I have. She raises her eyebrows and looks down at my ankle. "I had to jump out a window to escape biters, even then, I still managed to get away and climb a tree" I say with a hint of confidence. I understand I need to make myself seem needed now and try to give off a little more attitude I think she's looking for so I can stay. I don't even know if that's what I really want, but who knows what the alternative may be.

She nods then reaches her hand over to turn the camera off "one more thing" she pauses and I wait for her to speak again "is there anything else you want to tell me? Is there anything we should know?"

I think for a second before answering her "No. That's pretty much it." I smile. She nods yet again and the light turns off.

"I'll send Rick in now and he is going to ask you a few more questions. When he is done, we will talk and make a decision" She tells me before standing up and leaving the room. I sit silently waiting for the mysterious Rick to make his entrance.

A few minutes pass before I hear heavy footsteps enter the house, only there are more than one. I stand up and wait for him to enter the room. Daryl walks in first, walking to the corner of the room near a window. My eyes follow his before they avert to the man who walks in next. The man is dressed in a pair of jeans with a khaki colored police shirt with a badge pinned on. His hair is clean and gelled back, his face has a few days of shadow and he looks tired. "Sit, please" He says motioning to the seat I was sitting in before he walked in. I do as he suggests and he sits across from me, I glare quickly at Daryl who stays where he is. "I'm Rick and I only have three questions for you." I nod telling him I'll answer and he asks the first question "How many walkers have you killed?"

I look between the 2 of them before answering; "hundreds, I guess" I shrug not knowing the exact number anymore.

He nods and asks the next question "How many people have you killed?"

"Two" I respond back instantly, both Rick and Daryl adjust at my response uncomfortably.

"Okay, and finally, why?" Rick asks

"There was an accident. I could have saved them, but I saved myself instead." I look down at the laces on my boots, trying not to think about the incident.

"But you didn't pull the trigger yourself, so to speak?" Daryl asks me still by the window, saying what feels like more words then he's said to me in one sentence before. I shake my head no in response, not lifting my eyes.

"Okay. Daryl will take you back to the other house, I'll let you know when we make a decision." He says standing. Daryl stands next to me and they share a look before Rick nods to him and turns to leave the room and head farther into the house. Daryl walks in front of me, as I have come accustomed to and we walk back to the house in silence.

He walks upstairs and opens the door from the room I was in before. I walk inside and wait for the door to lock. The door shuts but it doesn't lock. I turn around confused and Daryl is standing in the room with me. I walk over to the bed and sit on it Indian style, waiting. We're waiting in awkward silence and his eyes avert from mine quickly every time they meet. I notice then that he has a habit of biting the inside of his lip.

A couple of hours pass and we still haven't heard anything. "I'm not going to get to stay here, am I?" I ask Daryl as I watch the sun set from the window.

He shrugs, not saying anything back to me or looking up. I sigh out in frustration; at least I got a shower and a clean pair of clothes from this, I'll be just fine on my own. "Is there anything else yew can tell me bout that accident?" Daryl asks pulling me from my thoughts. "Anything that will make their decision easier."

"I don't like to talk about it" I say back to him.

"Does it have something to do with Joey?" He asks me, taking 2 steps closer to the bed, now looking to me for answers. He must notice me shake a little at the mention of his name before speaking up "yew we're sayin' his name last night in the woods while sleepin'."

"Oh" Is what I say back, not wanting to say anything more.

"Screaming it, actually" He adds on. I shrink down a little into the headboard embarrassed. My night terrors stopped about 3 months ago, I thought they were finished. "Sorry" he says when he notices my reaction.

"It's alright." I accept his apology. "And yea, it does have to do with Joey" I finally answer the question. He nods and we say nothing more to one another.

Maggie comes upstairs and opens the door. My head swings to the door as it opens "Rick's back" she says leaving the door opened half way before retreating back down the hall.

Daryl turns his head to mine before walking towards the door. I follow in suit and we walk down the hall to the stairs. We get into the living room and there are more faces then I've seen in a long time in such a small space. Rick is standing in the middle of the room; everyone else hovered around him but still behind him. "Deanna and I have made a decision. After talking with Maggie, Glenn, Abraham, Carol, and Daryl we have decided to let you stay. If you want, that is." 

I look around at the strangers surrounding me. Feeling all their eyes on me. I let my eyes float to the one's I have seen, ending with Daryl. His eyes stay trained on mine, waiting for an answer. "Sure" I say, not exactly sure how I feel at the moment.

"Okay then. Well you will be staying in the house next door." He explains.

"Alone?" Daryl pipes in.

Rick adjusts his foot "No, I'm going to have Maggie, Glenn, and you stay there as well. You 3 spent the most time with her already" she confirms her choice with another nod to the head. I see Maggie and Glenn look at each other with smirks on their faces. Rick walks closer to me, stopping when he's only a few feet away "Welcome to Alexandria, Shannon" he reaches his hand out for me to take. I take his hand and he releases it shortly. After, he walks down the hall, into rooms I have yet to see and more people come forward to introduce themselves.

We leave and go back to my new home an hour or so after that. "Don't worry, you'll get to know everyone quickly" Maggie says plopping down onto the couch in the living room.

"How many people are here, anyway?" I ask her.

She bites into a piece of jerky and Glenn walks in answering my question "somewhere around 50 I believe" he sits next to her wrapping his arm around her shoulder. She leans into him and offers him her snack. He takes a bite of it as she rips down.

"That's a lot of people; our camp only had about 16" I return to them. Neither of them responds. "What made you vouch for me?" I ask them taking a sip of water.

They look at each other then back to me. Glenn speaks up first "I didn't vouch for or against you. I just told Rick what I knew and what I saw. Stuck to the facts."

"I actually told Rick I was suspicious of you at first. The way you talked about how your camp went down" Maggie shrugs "seems off."

"Then why would they let me stay?" I ask out loud.

They both shrug but Maggie answers, "you're a nice person, your interview must have went well. You should be happy" She smiles "it's good here."

"You're right" I respond to her. "I'm tired, I didn't know getting to know so many people could wear somebody out so much."

They stand up together "we'll show you were you can sleep" Glenn says and they walk up the stairs and show me to the same room from other house. I open the door and the furniture is the same. I take a moment to look down at the door and notice the knobs are put on the correct way; they aren't going to lock me in. "We'll be in the master" Glenn says pointing to a door across the way. "Night" they say to me before skipping off together giggling.

"Night" I call back to them after they have already closed their door. I close the door behind me and walk to the bed. I slip off my boots and look at my foot. The swelling has gone down a lot but the bruising is still deep purple and yellow. I grab one of the pillows and elevate my foot before lying down.

Although I'm completely exhausted, I don't find it easy falling asleep. My head races with questions, fear, and anxiety. This all happened so fast. Just 2 days ago I was safe in a different camp, or what I thought was safe. Now I'm somewhere else, with more people I don't know, with people who don't know me.


	8. Explored

I jolt upwards out of my sleep. I don't know what it is but I feel something off. I turn the light on that sits next to the bed and look around. Nothing is out of place or moved. I sit for a moment, trying to calm my heart rate letting the bleak white walls come clearly into view. I check my watch; it's just past 2:00 in the morning. Last time I looked at the time it was 1:28. I grab the water on the end table but it slips out of my shaky hands. It falls onto the rug, spilling everywhere. I get out of bed and pick up the glass, relieved it didn't break and scare everyone awake. I open my door slowly and make my way to the kitchen. I get to the bottom of the stairs and notice a light on in the living room. I walk inside there and see Daryl lying down on the couch, his hand resting on the bow. I tip toe into the kitchen and refill my glass of water. After it's filled, I make my way back to the room. I peek in the living room again only Daryl is no longer on the couch. I walk into the living room more for a better look around but he is not in there. I shrug to myself and turn back around. I jump back startled and the glass slips from my hands. It falls to the ground with a crash as Daryl stands in front of me, with his bow just inches from my left eye ball.

"Shannon. Shit. Sorry" He quickly lowers his weapon to the side.

I take a step back startled and I step on some of the shattered glass "ahhh, fuck!" I shout lifting it up and grabbing the injured foot, I begin to cradle the foot in my arm to try and get a better look at the wound. While doing that, I lose my balance and put my foot down on the side so I don't fall. Doing this makes me step on more shattered pieces. I inch forward to get away from the glass and my other foot gets cuts. "SHIT!" I yell louder in pain and frustration.

"'ilright, Hold on!" Daryl puts his bow on the ground and scoops me up quickly. He walks over the glass in his boots and up the stairs. We get to the top and I see Glenn and Maggie outside their bedroom door, with guns at the ready. "It's iight, just us. clumsy here dropped a damn glass," he says in an annoyed huff walking past them to the room "don't go down there yet." They move aside and Daryl places me on the bed before exiting the room swiftly.

I sit up and grab my right foot first, the one with more glass in it. I pull out a shard and wince in pain. Daryl comes back in with a towel and alcohol. He pours alcohol over my foot and pulls the glass out of my foot quickly. He grabs my other foot and repeats the process. Only a few minutes pass since it happened and he's now wrapping my right foot with another handkerchief. "Thanks" I tell him as he picks up the bloody glass shards from the bed and holds them in his hand.

"yea" He says getting up and walking to the trash to throw them out.

He reaches the door but I stop him "wait" he stops but doesn't turn "why'd you do it?" I ask him. He turns to face me again, confusion across his face. "Why'd you vouch for me?" I clarify. He shrugs "you don't even know me" I tell him "I could be crazy" I smile trying to ease him up.

"A crazy person wouldn't be having night terrors. Crazy people don't get afraid like that." He tells me.

I nod, not sure how to respond to that. "You know, there's another bedroom up here. You don't have to sleep on the couch." I change the subject.

He rubs his hand through his hair "doesn't feel right, this place ain't home."

"I know what you mean. This is all so much" I reply with a small smile.

"Night" he says back and I say the same before he shuts the door. I lie back down and try again to fall asleep. I get out of the bed around 6:00. I got a naps worth of sleep but need to get out of the room. When I stand, pain pins through both feet and I quickly sit back down. I forgot about the cuts on my feet. I slowly walk over to the dresser and find a pair of socks. I remove the handkerchief from my right foot and put both socks on. When I go downstairs I expect to see Daryl, but find Ricks son sitting at the kitchen table instead.

"Hi. Uhm, Carl right?" I say sort of limping around the island.

He smiles "Right. I'm here to show you around the town."

"It's kind of early, isn't it?" I ask.

"I brought you some coffee" he lifts a cup up from in front of him.

I smile softly towards him "Thanks, but I'd rather not get hooked on that stuff again" He shrugs and takes a sip himself. My smile grows wider and I laugh. "You're a little young for coffee, don't you think?"

"I had to kill my own mother, I think I can handle coffee" He responds seriously. My laugh stops instantly and I'm shocked at what he said.

"Sorry, I uhh.. I didn't mean to offend you" I apologize, unsure why his response was so candid.

He tilts his head "can you be ready soon?" his questions comes off as impatient and the kind kid I thought he was quickly turned into a moody teenager.

"Uh, ya, sure, just need to put my shoes on" I respond moving away and going to grab my shoes.

Carl walks me around the town for 5 hours, I do my best to maintain the discomfort my ankle and cuts cause. I meet more new faces and talk politely to some of the ones I met the night before. We arrive back at the house around 11:30. I limp up the balcony stairs and drop onto the couch in the living room. I don't even notice Deanna sitting on the chair in the corner of the room. "Looks like you need to stay off your feet for awhile" she says standing up.

"Oh, it's alright. Just some cuts and a sprain." I respond removing my legs from the coffee table.

"Don't get up. This is your house, you can put your feet up if you want" She smiles coming closer.

"My house?" I ask.

She nods "yes, I was going to place you in another home but someone insisted you stay close by. They offered up one of the homes they were given." She explains, "Why a group of 14 or so people want to stay in one house is besides me, but anyway" she regains her posture and line of thought "You really do need to stay off your feet. I need you to make a supply run soon."

I'm thrown back by this request "Oh. Okay. Already?" I ask.

She smiles a political smile "We all pull our weight here. You said you were good at supply runs, and we are in need of some supplies"

"Okay then. What do you need?" I ask for clarification about the run.

She shakes her head "I can't tell you just yet, stay off your feet for the next 2 days and then I'll give you all the information you need."

The front door opens and Daryl walks in with 2 dead rabbits and a squirrel in hand "what's going on?" He asks when he see's Deanna.

"Nothing, I was just going." The same smile plastered on her face. She walks past him and when she reaches the door she pauses to say one more thing "If you want to stay, you'll get this done" she closes the door behind her.

I sigh and sit back down, putting my feet back on the coffee table. "What did she want?" He asks placing his bow down and hanging his catch on the coat rack, eyeing the door suspiciously.

"I have to do a run in 2 days" I tell him.

"Like that?" He looks down at my feet.

I nod "she told me to stay off my feet before then. So I'll just hang out here until I have to go."

"She give you any information? What does she want? Who's going on the run? Rick hasn't said anything" He rambles off walking past me, probably not really even caring for answers from me.

"She won't tell me until it's time to go, maybe Rick doesn't know about it." I suggest the idea to him.

"Maybe" He responds "Gonna make rabbit, but they have some other food at the house. I can have Carol bring some over." He offers lifting the carcasses up with his hand and over his shoulder.

"Actually" I say "rabbit sounds pretty good."

He leaves the view from the living room and I hear him working in the kitchen. I keep my feet propped up, grabbing a book and decide to read until he's done.


	9. 132

"Please, stop" I plead through a whisper.

"Don't be so shy. You have to loosen up a little, it'll be easier that way" Clint laughs unlocking my seat belt. He moves his hand over my shirt and fondles my breast. I try to push him away but he gets angry "DON'T BE SO RUDE!" He grabs a hold of my neck threatening me. I weep out in fear I’m and he puts his other hand under my shirt for more access.

"please.. please.." I beg again closing my eyes. He pinches my breast and my eyes open.

I'm still in the living room, and Daryl is yet again standing over me. I look around and it's dark inside the house, only a distant light illuminating the room. I look down at my forearm where his hand was holding "It didn't sound like a good dream" he removes his hand and walks away.

"What time is it?" I say as he sits on the couch.

"Around 2" he responds kicking his shoes off.

I sit up "Oh. I missed dinner, you could have woke me" I tell him rubbing my eyes.

"I figured yew needed sleep, with those dreams and all, yew probably don't get a lot." He says lying down, putting his hand behind his head and closing his eyes.

"Thanks." I say to him "Sorry that I woke you" I apologize to him.

"You didn't." he speaks. I don't have anything else to say so we lay there silently. I sigh some time later unable to sleep. "Can't sleep?" Daryl asks me.

"No" I respond.

"Come with me" He says getting up and putting his shoes back on.

My eyes squint "I'm suppose to stay off my feet" I tell him while removing my feet from the coffee table anyway.

He finished putting his shoes on and throws his vest on "We won't be gone long."

I slip my boots on quickly and follow him through the kitchen and dining room. We leave the house from the back door and walk along the wall. My cuts don't hurt as much as they did earlier in the day and my ankle feels a little better as well. I try to put as little pressure on it as possible. We walk for only a few minutes before he stops. He leans against a part of the wall and it creaks open. He slides it over and places his bow on the ground. He slides his way out of the compound before helping me out. He picks up his bow, replaces the board and we walk a few minutes into the woods.

He finally stops "where are we?" I ask looking around.

"Look up" He says. I tilt my head up to the night sky, and the stars shine above me.

"Whoah. That's amazing!" I say admiring the way the leaves frame the sky. I turn my head back down to where were standing and notice that we're enclosed by trees but the field is a perfect circle. "How'd you find this place?" I ask him looking back up again.

"A lot of sleepless nights" he says in return "like ta be alone, can't get that in there." He gestures his head back, referring to Alexandria. We hear a sound and he directs his arrow towards where the sound was coming from. We wait a few moments before a biter comes into sight. It's a boy, and he hits it directly in the head. He falls to the ground and he walks over to the body.

"What are you doing?" I ask him as he lifts up his legs and starts to drag him.

He is out of view for a moment before he walks back into sight "I don like to leave bodies in here, not a true part of nature." We stay there for a little while before deciding to head back. He guides me back to the same spot in the wall and we walk back into the house silently. I sit back down on the couch and put my feet back up on the table "Night" Daryl says laying back down.

"Night" I say back closing my eyes.

I stay inside the house over the next two days and stay off of my feet as much as possible. Deanna made another stop by the morning after her first visit to reassure I got her message. Maggie stays with me on the first day and takes care of Judith for Rick. She tells me a little bit about her group. This is when I learned that her and Glenn are actually married. I asked her about Carl, and his mother. She explained to me what happened and I apologize for bringing it up.

The second day I get more stir crazy, I never imagined being cooped inside a home again. At the previous camp, we had our jobs to do and we were all always moving. The house was pretty empty all day and I found myself reading books to pass the time.

I wake up on my 4th day there and get dressed into my old clothes. Carol returned them to me the night before as clean as she could get them. My cuts are healed over and the bruise on my ankle has lightened in color. I make my way to Deanna's house from memory and knock on the door.

She opens it for me and I walk into the living room. The camera from the other day was no longer there and I sit down on the same couch.

"Okay Shannon, I need you to go to Jersey. There's a storage place and inside the storage units are weapons, you need to bring those back." She explains handing over a piece of paper with an address on it and a map.

"A storage unit?" I ask her suspiciously.

"Yes, it wasn't something my government advertised but here in Virginia, we were prepared. The weapons are hidden in different units and you will need to go through them and bring them back." She explains further.

"How many units?" I ask her next, picking up a pen to write it down.

She sits back "132"

"Wow. That's a lot of units." I sigh while writing it down "okay, how am I getting there?" I ask her.

She picks up a pair of keys and hands them to me "There's a truck you can take, it's about 200 miles.

"Alright. Who's coming with me?" I ask her next.

"Well, I don't want to send too many people off on this, so take Tara and Abraham." She figures it out on the spot. I nod, not comfortable protesting against her. "I need you to get moving. Go and tell them and I will meet you at the car lot with my son shortly." She opens the door and gestures me out. I walk out dazed and confused at what just happened.

I make my way back to the house to talk to Daryl before I go. I don't find him and just pack a bag of some of the things I've been using the last few days. When I'm finished I leave the house and walk next door. I ring the doorbell and wait for someone to answer it. Michonne comes to the door and lets me inside "is uhh, Tara here?" I ask awkwardly, trying to remember what she looks like.

She nods and calls out to her. A few moments pass before she comes down the stairs and others peer out from the shadows "what's up?" she asks me stopping on the 3rd step and putting her hands in her jean pockets.

"Deanna is sending me on a run, and she is having you and Abraham come with me." I explain to her quickly.

She sighs out and at the same time Abraham steps out from the kitchen chewing on something "well, let's get going lady logs" he pushes past me and into the living room to grab things. Tara nods back and retreats back up the stairs. Tara returns a few minutes later and we wait together silently for Abraham to be ready. "Okay" He says throwing a bag over his shoulder, waiting for me to lead the way out.

I walk out of the door and begin walking towards the car lot. We walk a few feet before a voice calls out "Hey, where you 3 going?"

I turn around and Daryl is coming out of the house. His hair is finally cleaned but he's still wearing the same dirty clothes with his bow attached to his back. I holler back "This is the run team, we gotta go out to Jersey."

He keeps walking towards us and responds when he reaches our standing position "I'll go, you can stay back" He directs a head nod towards Abraham.

"I don't know if she gone go for that" He hocks out some spit to the side.

"It's fine, yew got a job to do here" He pushes past him and walks on. Tara and I shrug to one another and proceed to follow Daryl. Abraham stands for a few moments before turning around and heading back to the house.

We reach Deanna and she is standing outside the car lot with her son. He has a set of keys around his neck, and they clink together as he removes them to open the chain link fence. After he opens it, she guides us to the vehicle and her son loads a few gallons of gas in the truck bed. "I see Abraham has been replaced" She gives me what I assume is a political smile. Nothing nice nor rude behind it.

"I chose to come" Daryl speaks up before walking past her and around to the driver side of the car. She follows his steps and her face doesn't register any emotion.

"Good luck. We're rooting for your return" She finally loosens her tight lips into a half smile.

Tara gives her a smile and a nod and I just nod at her. I side into the middle of the seats and Tara gets in next to me, closing the door behind her. Daryl puts the truck into drive and pulls out of the lot. It takes a little time before we reach the paved road but we finally do and we cruise forward towards our destination.


	10. The Road Taken

We drive silently. Tara eventually nods off after 2 hours of silence. I awkwardly sit there, wondering what to say. I finally think of something and just spit it out "if these were so important to get, why do you think Deanna waited so long to send someone?" I ask.

"We've been kinda busy" he answers without looking over to me.

I decide not to push it any further and change the subject "What are the odds the roads will be clear the whole way there?"

He takes a quick side glance at me with a familiar scowl on his face "not likely" are the 2 words he says. I nod, pretty much already knowing that response.

"Wake up!" A woman says to me. When my eyes open I notice the truck is stopped and other vehicles are cramped together on the road. "We gotta go on foot now" she slides out of the truck slinging her weapon along her shoulder. I follower her lead and get out of the truck, taking along my bag and closing the door quietly.

"How far out are we?" I ask after we start walking.

"90 or so miles" Daryl responds. Oh, great, I say to myself. I follow the two of them as the sun sits high in the sky.

After a few minutes I realize I have no weapon to protect myself or help take down the biters. "You guys think I can get something over here to help out?" I holler out behind the two stepping around the body of a man who took an arrow to the head.

Tara eyes me for a second before gazing over to Daryl for the go ahead. He nods once and she pulls out a handgun from her back pocket and hands it over to me. I feel the familiar weight of a loaded gun and slip it in my jeans. We walk a bit further before Daryl finds a knife for me to use for a quieter attack. We continue on, taking our time to take out any biter that sees us, not wanting any attention or anything staying in our way for our return. When we notice the sun beginning to set Tara speaks up "We should get a bit of rest and keep moving before sunrise, easier to stay hidden."

"Good idea" I respond to her and look around for somewhere to stop and rest. "We've past some RV's and trucks, maybe we can rest in one of those" I suggest.

"Sounds good to me, Daryl?" She asks.

He doesn't answer, as I expected and we finally look at each other and she shrugs. We walk further until we come across a semi truck. We walk around the truck, checking the cab before we stand at the ready to open the door at what may be inside. We thrust the door slowly to keep the sound low and it appears empty. When it's open enough for us to move in Tara and I climb up and walk in slowly. Suddenly, a low mumble comes from the back and we stop in place. As we wait, one figure starts to move closer with determination. I move my feet forward and thrash the dead soul with my knife. It falls to the ground as I remove the blade, blood dripping onto the floor. Tara walks over and drags the body by its hands to the end of the truck where we hopped in. She drops the limbs and holds the door open; Daryl drags it out of the truck and returns to view a few moments later. I wipe the blood from my face with the handkerchief in my pocket and continue the walk forward to make sure it's clear. When it's clear, we find something to prop the door open with and Daryl jumps in.

"I'll keep watch" he says sitting down and letting his feet dangle off the edge. Tara nods and puts her backpack down against the wall. I follow her and rest against the steel wall across from her. It's not long before I find myself drifting away.

"Hey, knock it off!" Tara kicks my feet and I sit up quickly. Everything is dark except for a faint flashlight bouncing off the wall to stay dim.

"Sorry?" I ask confused and standing up.

She gives me a dirty look "your screaming isn't gonna keep us safe!"

I shrug embarrassed "Look, I'm sorry.. Its not like" I say to her but she interrupts me.

"Sorry aint gonna do shit. You gotta sort out whatever issues you have" her voice raises as she snarls at me.

"What's going on?" Daryl's voice comes from the end of the truck. His light peers in and illuminates the walls.

I squint away at the brightness while I respond "my fault, it's nothing.. sorry"

Daryl's light flutters over to Tara when she speaks "ya, you should be" she falls back against the wall and covers eyes with her arm "we'll get going in another hour or so" she mumbles out.

Daryl turns away and the lit area becomes darker again. I slowly walk out of the small space, trying to make little to no noise as I jump down. My feet hit the ground and I make my way around to the side of the truck. I spot Daryl in the field a few feet away with his bow resting in position and his body slowly inching forward in stalking position. The bow is let go and it meets its target. He walks over to his game and rips the arrow out of the animal, cleaning it and replacing it in the quiver. He lifts it up and walks back towards the road. He reaches the asphalt and I finally recognize the animal as a squirrel.

"Why don't you catch some sleep? I'll keep watch" I tell him as he walks past me.

"I'm good" he says hopping back into the truck, taking out a knife and already cutting the animal open. I prop myself up and sit next down next to him, watching him work "don't apologize by the way. You can't help it" Daryl speaks first after minutes of silence.

I look over my shoulder at her and notice the steady flow of her chest and hear a nasally snore emit from her mouth. "Oh, well, it is pretty inconvenient" I defend her frustration and anger. I know how dangerous it is, I've put others at risk before.

"No. It's not. Something bad obviously happened, fuck her, we're fine" he explains to me, saying more to me than usual "Go back to sleep, i'll wake you up if I hear anything."

"Thanks" I say getting up and returning to the same spot as before. I close my eyes, trying to focus on the silence of the night and the sounds of the insects.

I wake up and spot Tara now laying on her side and Daryl with his head slouched down, the cleaned squirrel set down next to him. I slowly inch my way up to a seated position. I sit there quietly, letting the two of them rest, keeping my eyes trained out the door and ears open for any out of place noises. Eventually I look down at my watch and notice I've been awake for about 2 hours. I know they wanted to get moving before the sun rises, and it's 3:21 now. I move around and stand up slowly. I walk over towards Tara and gently wake her up, shaking her shoulder softly. Her eyes open with fear but relax quickly when she realizes she's not at risk "we should get going" I whisper. She nods and I move on to wake Daryl. I stand behind him and put my hand on his shoulder softly to wake him. His hand quickly jerks up and grabs mine tightly. Jerking me forward. I am basically toppled over him before he turns his head and realizes who it is. He lets go of my hand and I stand up, take a step back and re-adjust myself. "We should go" I say to him when he's standing on the ground.

"Yea" He mumbles out shaking out his hair and grabbing a hold of the dead creature. Tara hops out of the truck and I follow her, we start on the road again.


	11. Clearing Out

It takes hours upon hours of walking before we finally get to the town in Jersey. We were able to find some cars to drive along with the way until they either ran out of gas or didn't have a clear path to go through. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we we're able to avoid or take care of any biters along the way without any trouble. We reach the storage unit and the gates have kept majority of them out. We hop the fence and slowly work our way to the front door. We get inside and pause after the door closes. "There's 132 units to go through, they won't be easy to find either" I say from the back of the hall.

"Did she tell you what were specifically looking for, or how many there are? Tara asks me.

"Just that we'll need to go through all of them." I tell her the truth.

Daryl's eyes roll "sounds like she wants to keep you busy" he mutters. He lowers the back off his shoulders and takes out the two sheers he's been carrying and passing one to me. "We'll go ahead and cut the locks off all the units with ones still on them. Tara, you start searching through units."

"Okay, leave open the units so there are no surprises and I'll shut them once I go through it." She follows us forward as we come to the first unit. Daryl places the lock in-between the sheers and presses the handles together. The lock breaks open and falls to the ground as he releases it from the grasp. Tara takes a deep breath when she bends down and holds it in. The heavy door slides open and we prepare ourselves for what could be inside. Her breath pours out as the empty room comes into view and nothing but old furniture lies in front of us. Tara nods us forward as she steps inside and moves things around.

The two of us step forward to other units. He takes the one directly next to the one we just opened and I go to the one across. We cut the locks open and he counts out to three with his finger to open them together. Our backs touch as we prepare to take down any danger. 2 rooms clear and we continue down the hall.

It's the 5th door down the second hall when I open a unit and 4 biters are staring me down. "Daryl!" I shout out while raising my hand to smash the head of one in.

"Duck!" He hollers back and I listen. Dropping my blunt object to the ground. One of them takes an arrow to the head and falls into another. I pick up my object quickly and smash the occupied biter dead. Daryl took the 4th one down with his knife.

"Keep moving" His voice is lowered a bit as he picks his sheers back up and finishes opening his door. I move forward, stepping over a dead body and opening more units. Some more time passes before Tara makes her way over to where we are. Her face is covered in sweat and she's carrying a gun around her shoulder. "Had some luck?" Daryl speaks up when she turns down the hall we are on.

"Found about 40 guns or so.. Some have clips in them, others have nothing. Found some ammo also, this is the mother load!" She smiles big taking the gun off of her shoulder and passing it over to me. I shake my head no and she passes it towards Daryl. He also declines and Tara slings it back into position. She grabs the water canister from Daryl's bag and takes a swig. She replaces it before heading back to her units.

2 more hallways and we kill biters in 3 more of the units. "Ima check on Tara, take a break" Daryl pops his head into the unit I'm scanning through. I nod and take a seat on an old piece of furniture in one of the units for a small break. I open up one of the food bars we packed and eat it slowly, letting it fill my stomach. When I finish the food, I put the wrapper into my pocket and take a swig of the water I have.

"How is she?" I ask when he comes into view, leaning against the units wall.

He shrugs "you wouldn't have been able to bring them all back yourself, there are some good pieces here" his eyes scan the open units and the halls we are in.

"Hopefully we'll be done soon." I mention standing up to continue our work.

We move forward but it's not too long before we hear screams coming from another hallway. Our heads turn to one another's with wide eyes and Daryl's feet moves quickly towards the sound. I shuffle out of where I was and follow him. As we move, we hear a gun shot go off and we somehow move faster. "Tara!" I shout out to her. Daryl runs into a unit and I turn in soon after. He is bent down next to her and she is breathing heavily, her gun on the side "are you okay?" he asks.

"Ya, I'm good." She nods back to him wiping blood off of her face. Her eyes turn to mine with anger "what the fuck? I thought you were clearing these out!" Her voices rises towards me again.

"I did. I remember this one, it was clear." I defend myself, confused.

"Bullshit!" she stands up pushing past Daryl towards me "you almost got me killed!"

My head races and I know this room was clear "something's not right" I say out as she moves closer looking behind me. I'm taken off guard when she pushes me back and I land against the wall.

"Ya, since you showed up you've been putting more of us in danger!" She steps closer to my face again.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Daryl pushes her apart from me as I stare at her. She stares back at me before blowing hair out of her face and looking away. "let it go!" He demands to her.

"Let's finish this" I walk past the both of them and make my way back to where I was with anger.

I blow through as many units as I can until I'm done with my side of the hallways. Daryl kept up with me and we make our way back to find Tara. Tara hasn't been through even half of the units so we join her in the search. The sun has been set for a while now and we are a little more then half way through the units. "You should take a break" Daryl says to me as I search through another one. I ignore him and keep going. "Hey, take it easy" he grabs my arm. My head turns quickly to face him and my eyes flash with rage "you need to calm down." He says before letting go.

I take a deep breath before muttering "sorry" and taking a quick glance towards Tara across the way.

"Don't worry about her" he says "we're gonna stay here tonight, finish tomorrow and leave at sunset" He says before turning away and talking to Tara.

I take another deep breath and exhale. I move out of the unit and look into a few rooms around me. There are a few rooms we can set up to be comfortable for the night. We move some things around in some of the units so we will each be comfortable. "I'm going to close the other units, just to be safe" she snarls at me before leaving.

I roll my eyes after her back turns. I lie against some couch pillows. I kick off my boots and run my hand over my foot. Although I'm moving around fine, my foot still hurts from all the walking and being on it the past 2 days on this journey. Tara walks past me to the unit across from mine and I ignore her. I read some old books lying around for a while before I feel comfortable enough to sleep. I know Daryl will stay awake until Tara takes over watch so I get up slowly and shut the door to my unit so it's open just a crack. I turn my flashlight off and let the quiet sounds take over.

When I wake up I slip my shoes on and open the door enough for me to get out by bending down quiet a bit.

Tara is still asleep and Daryl is spinning a pocketknife against the skin on his thumb. "you get sleep?" I ask him quietly.

She shakes his head no "naw, I'm iight"

"Well go ahead and catch some, I'll take over" I sit across from him on a box. He shrugs his shoulders and leans his head back against the wall and his eyes close. I sit quietly where I am and just wait as the time goes by. Daryl wakes up a few short hours later. His head lifts slightly. We sit in the silence, just waiting for Tara to wake up. It's about another hour before she does and she sneaks out of the unit similar to how I did. Her eyes lift a little when she sees us sitting there looking at her.

"What?" She asks oblivious. This time I roll my eyes at her and lift myself off of the old furniture. "well let's go" she kicks the box I was just sitting on as she pushes past me rubbing against my shoulder.

I make a u-turn and follow her lead into one of the units we have yet to search. Time passes as some units turn up nothing and others have hidden weapons. As we go through, I find myself wondering who really placed everything here, why, and how long ago.

"Alright, 88 weapons. Let's pack up and get going." Daryl lifts a gun off the floor, checks the lock and stuffs it into a bag. Tara and I follow suit and we walk back towards the front door. We step into the sun before it begins to set and slowly walk towards the broken car gate. We pass it and make our way into the deserted roadway.

We take the same route out as we did in and find one of the cars we used still where we left it. It had some gas in it so we turn it around and drive it as far as it goes. It was dark when we reached the car and all three of us stay awake for the short ride. Tara leaves the tape cassette playing with the rolling stones on. I sit in the back seat with my feet resting against the middle console.

"Stop up there" Daryl directs Tara. She glances at him before driving a few feet forward pulling over.

"We got at least 40 miles left" She glances down at the gas gauge.

He mumbles under his breath "just do it" and she puts it in park annoyed. He opens his car door and gets out "it's a clear path, we might need some gas later on," he says once we're both out of the car. I nod and throw the bag over my shoulder shutting the door quietly. Daryl sifers the gas out of the truck and we move ahead.

We walk ahead, making good time. It's a few hours later before I hear something. I stop walking but the other 2 keep going. I hear whatever it was again and make a quick and short whistle sound to get their attention. They stop and turn to face me. I gesture my head towards where I think the sound is coming from. Daryl gestures for Tara and I to get his back and he goes forward. He walks across the road and into the woods. Tara and I wait at the edge for further instruction. Daryl soon walks back out quickly. He's waving his hand forward for us to move away quickly. We move and find a truck to hide behind. We kneel down by the tire and huddle together.


	12. Getting Back

"Huge flock of walkers. Gotta move!" his whisper is calm but his eyes show a hint of panic. We nod and start running forward low to the ground. I keep my eyes trained in front of me, eyes on the ground watching every step. Tara looks behind us and her eyes open wide. She trips over something and stumbles. I try to slow down but I can't stop my feet fast enough and I slam into her. We fall to ground, our bags and weapons sliding against the asphalt.

"FUCK!" She shouts out. The same thought is going through my head but I keep it to myself, still aware of the situation we are in.

Daryl grabs me by the arm and lifts me up with no effort. He does the same to her afterwards and shoves our bags at us. He turns back around and starts to run again. We follow suit. We run in and out of the trees, killing random biters in front of us quickly to keep our gain. "We have to get off this road" I say to them as the trees thin out.

"There are hundreds" Tara responds to me.

"We're almost there" Daryl growls angrily without turning to us. We shrug at one another and keep forward. My sides start to hurt again but I know I'll just run through it like I did a little while ago. I make a mental note to start running again if we make it back inside those walls.

Daryl starts to slow down as we reach an area that is heavily trafficked with abandoned cars. He turns a corner and we follow him. A few steps more and things start to look familiar. We reach the truck we slept in the other night and climb up and slide under the cracked door. I slide it shut quickly and it creaks as it reaches its settling point. Two flashlights shine and we catch our breath for a few moments "hundreds?" I finally ask when my chest is starting to become consistent. Daryl nods his head confirming. Tara starts to shake her head her eyes wide with something in them. "What is it?" I ask her

"Their eyes, they don't have any" she tells me. Daryl nods again when she says that.

"No eyes?!" I ask my own widening. "Like they were removed?" I add on.

She nods slowly "ya, I think so" her breath calming down now as well.

I stand up quickly "we have to get out of here! We're not safe!" I put the bag back around my shoulders. Tara and Daryl start to talk but I don't hear the actual words

An arm comes over my shoulder and I turn to meet Daryl's eyes "calm down" he says before letting go.

"You don't understand. The people who did that to the biters are bad people. We can't be anywhere near where they are!" I try to keep my voice down, but having a hard time doing so.

"What do you mean?" Tara asks me.

My eyes widen with frustration "I can't explain, we just need to keep moving!"

"We don't even know where they were coming from. They could have been wandering for a long time. We'll stay here until it's clear to go." Daryl explains taking hold of the bag on my shoulder trying to remove it.

I hold on to it tighter and we are at a stand still "we're not safe" I grumble under my breath.

"We will be. They have no eyes. They didn't see anything. We will stay quiet and move when it's clear." His eyes don't avert from mine and his grip doesn't loosen.

I sigh out after a few moments and let the bag fall off my shoulder. I turn away from them and sit quietly in the corner of the truck. It's not long after that we start to hear the grumbling noises from the biters outside. As they pass by they ram into the truck. It shakes. Sometimes with more force when more then one run into it. We all keep our bags of weapons right to our chests, knowing the slightest sound will grab their attention and we'll die of suffocation.

I watch the time pass by on my watch. 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours. Things finally start to break apart during that 4th hour. "We should try and rest" Tara speaks kicking off her shoes.

"No, we should get ready to move." I argue back

"There are still some lingering around, who knows how far they actually got. We don't want to run into them again. We'll just wait it out here" she responds.

"We shouldn't" I say turning my eyes to Daryl for support. His eyes avert from mine, showing me he agrees with her. I put my head back against the cold steel and close them "guess I'll try and sleep" I mumble out.

My nerves keep me from getting any real rest. I just want to get back behind the walls of Alexandria. We've been in the container for about 12 hours now; the air is sticky and thin. We have been locked in for awhile and I just can't wait for the word that we can keep moving.

2 more hours pass before we slowly slide open the truck door and peer out into the sunlight. From what we can see, there is nothing in sight. We open it up just a little bit more and get out. Although there was enough space to walk around, it feels like I have to stretch out. I reach my hands over my head and do just that. We move around the side of the truck and see some stragglers left behind. Daryl takes them out with his bow and I go and collect them. 2 of the 3 had their eyes removed. We start walking in the direction towards Alexandria in a slow pace. Keeping our eyes peeled for anything.

When we get back to Alexandria it's just after midnight the next day. We took our time getting back just to be safe, taking a different route. I sluggishly walk up the steps to the home and go to open the door. It does not push open when I try. I stand back confused and then try again. It doesn't budge. I look around and it's deserted. I slug myself back down the steps and go next door. I knock quietly and Maggie slowly opens the door.

"Shannon?" She questions "what's up?" she yawns.

I nod towards the house "it's locked" I tell her. She opens the door further for me to enter and I do.

"A water pipe broke, I think? They had to move some people in there. We can go back in after it gets fixed. she whispers as we walk towards the living room. I nod and follow her in there. Bodies are scattered across the floor. She slips back under a blanket to which I assume is Glenn and I look around for somewhere I can rest. There's a spot open by the window and I tip toe my way around everyone, trying not to wake them. Some grumble or move a bit but no one says anything. I lay my head down on a couch pillow and let my eyes close shut. I wake up as the sun shines through the blinds. There are still a few people sleeping but majority have left. I make up the area I was in and tip toe back out into the house. I find Rick, Carl, Judith, Abraham and Glenn in the backyard. Most of them give me a head nod as I walk out the door.

"Glad you guys made it back safe" Rick says when I settle against the wall. "Daryl filled me in, you guys found a good amount of weapons. Thank you." His voice is kind when he talks to me.

"You guys already caught up? Do you guys ever sleep?" I joke. They all smile and some chuckle.

He shrugs after smiling "there's a community that needs us, sleep can wait."

I can tell he means what he says, "so what happened with that broken pipe?" I ask

Carl speaks first "not sure, Deanna will have someone in there today to fix it so hopefully you guys can get in soon" he switches the way he is holding Judith.

"OK. What house was it?" I ask next, wondering what family was put out to move. I don't really care where I am staying, I'm just happy to be behind walls I feel safe behind.

Some of their faces contort in confusion "ya know, not really sure.." Abraham returns. They all agree with what he says and I shrug it off.

"Well you think it's cool if I take a quick shower here?"

"Of course" Rick says and I turn back around and head back into the house. I walk past Carol and Maggie who are talking in the kitchen while cooking. I smile at them and make my way up the stairs to the bathroom.

After the shower I dress into the clothes I was already in. They may be dirty but it's all I have right now. I find a brush and brush slowly through the knots that have grown into my hair. When I'm done I go back towards the stairs. A few people are headed out the door when I reach the bottom of the steps. "What's going on?" I ask them.

"Deanna is holding a town meeting, wants anyone who's not working to be there" Michonne turns her head to tell me before continuing out the door.

"Oh. Ok. I didn't know, I'll be there shortly" I yell out as the rest walk out the door as well.

The last one out is Carol "it's starting, so don't take too long" the door shuts softly behind her. I stand in the quiet house at the end of the stairs. I sigh out and go into the kitchen. I may be clean but my clothes are still a mess. I wipe at some of the dirt on the shirt but the blood is stained. I go to the closet in the hallway and grab a jacket. I don't know whom it belongs to but I hope they don't mind I slip it on, zip it up and walk out the door. I walk slowly to the main square of the town. There's a faint female noise and it gets louder as I get closer. I reach the edge of the square and lean against a brick wall.

"So, I apologize for what seems like keeping this a secret, but I want to assure you it was in good standing. Please welcome Flax, Joseph, and Cameron to Alexandria." Deanna steps aside from the makeshift stage she is standing on and 3 men come up onto the stage. My entire body goes numb and I stumble backwards. I trip while I walk and fall to the ground. I stumble to my feet and turn the corner. My feet move forward faster and I follow where they lead me. When I eventually stop I bend over, grabbing my stomach and hurl onto the dead ground. When Im done, I just fall to my knees and wait for more.


	13. An Old Threat

When I'm done throwing up for the second time I wipe my mouth with the sleeve of the jacket and lift my head up "everything okay?" A voice asks me.

My head turns around and Daryl is standing behind me. I stand up slowly looking around and remember the empty wooded area he brought me to before. My head fills with memories and I remember what brought me here "how did you know I was here?" I ask afraid.

"I saw you when you tripped" he says back to me suggesting he followed behind me.

"Did they see me? Are they coming?" I frantically ask looking behind him to see if anyone is coming through the trees.

He takes two steps closer "is everythin okay?" he questions me. "yer actin paranoid"

"Did anyone come with you??" I step closer to him, now we're only a few feet apart.

"Shannon, no one else is here. What is going on?" He puts a hand on my shoulder and keeps it there.

My eyes still search behind him before I bring them to his face. I notice the concern in his eyes and speak "They aren't good people, they can't stay here! That's not their names, they are lying! Daryl, they can't stay here!"

"Calm down, calm down. What are you talkin' about?" He interrupts my rambling.

I shake my head and ramble more "Those men she just brought into town. They are not good; they are the ones who cut out the biters eyes!" I rant more. He nods his head as I continue to ramble on.

"Okay, okay" he eventually interrupts and his hands are held up "let's go back and you can tell me what you mean" he tries to gesture for me to walk towards the camp.

"No, I can't go back there. If they see me.." I shake my head and tears well in my eyes.

"Ok. Let's get away from here and you can tell me what you mean somewhere else" he changes the direction he is facing. I nod slowly as he walks past me further away from Alexandria. We walk for about 20 minutes before coming to a shed. It's worn down, covered in vines and littered with debris. I don't have anything but a pocketknife on me so Daryl takes a quick look around the property. After it's cleared he wriggles open the shed door and we quickly clear the location. It's a small space so it only takes a few moments. There's a dusty blanket on the ground in the corner and I pick it up and wrestle it into the air. I place it on the floor again and sit on it, resting against the wall. Daryl finds an old hay bale and brings it over; he places it on the edge of the blanket and takes a seat. "So, what's goin on?" he asks when he's seated comfortably.

"They can't stay Daryl!" my emotions take over and I shout it out. He moves his hands for me to slow down and quiet down and I take a deep breath "they don't need a place to stay, they are up to something!" I snarl next.

"So you know them?" He asks. "Are they from your old camp?" he asks another question.

"No! Please, they can't know I'm here! If they don't leave, I have to!"

Daryl gets off the bale of hay and kneels in front of me, taking my hands "no one is leaving, hold on. What is goin' on?" our hands rest in his lap.

I breathe in deep again "you know those nightmares I have?" I pause and he nods in response "they are responsible for them" I simply explain looking away hoping that's all I need to say for him to trust me.

"Does this have to do with Joey?" He says. The name burning my ears and my eyes jolt to him. He shrugs and lets go of my hands.

"You could say so" I mutter under my breath letting my disdain for him show.

"Shannon, tell me what's going on" Daryl catches on. "You can trust me," his words interrupt mine and he is looking me in the eyes. I hold them for a moment before he averts them away to his own hands.

"He was my best friend before all of this happened" I gesture towards the obvious state of the world "I was only able to survive for so long at first because of him. Our first camp was in the city, in a neighborhood. However, as things got worse, we didn't feel safe so we left. We we're on our own for some time hooking up with other randoms along the way. A couple of months ago, maybe over a year now, I'm not really sure, but we were in a really bad way. We came across this camp and they took us in. After about 2 weeks things started to feel weird. Joey and I.." I pause from saying his name, bile churning in my stomach. I hold it down and continue "we talked about leaving, we didn't have to stay, it was always our choice. Or so I thought. As it turned out, it was actually his choice. He choose to stay, and in order to do so he sold me to the camp."

"Sold you?" His voice is low. I nod with a blank stare "what happened?"

"I was going to be married off, but when I got to a camp they had a woman give me an exam and she knew I was a virgin. So I was going to the leader, the head hancho, the king" I roll my eyes at all the names they had for him as I wipe the tears that are falling from my eyes.

"They raped you?" Daryl's chest puffs up and his face is now red with rage.

"Never got that far, luckily for me I guess" I explain feeling exposed. I cover myself up with my arms, trying to fade away feeling grotesque and ashamed. "They had to move me to his compound first. On the way we got in an accident. The driver was distracted with what his pal was doing to me and we hit a parked trailer. The truck flipped a few times into a ditch. I escaped the truck before the biters surrounded it."

He nods "that's the accident you were talking about the day you talked with Rick and I" he says out loud explaining it to himself mostly. I nod to confirm, "You didn't kill them Shannon"

"I could have saved them, there was time" I look away.

"You did what you had to do survive, they wouldn't have let you go" his voice rises while he defends me.

"Doesn't matter. As it seems to be they are alive and well" I interrupt him from continuing.

"For now" he adds standing and lifting his bow to his arm. I stand up quickly to stop him and grab a hold of his arm.

I pull at his arm a bit more to stop him "Please don't. You don't know them, they are ruthless!" I beg

"They won't have the chance to be" he snarls.

"Daryl, they aren't here seeking refugee, if you kill them only more will come!" I plead more.

"How do you know?" He asks lowering his bow just a little.

"They had at least 5 compounds, even if one of them went down they have other places to go. And running into the biters they make after that run.. It's just not a coincidence" I describe.

"They are the ones who removed the eyes?" He asks. "But why?"

"I don't really know, something to do with giving them a stronger sense of hearing. I think they may follow the beard to other camps. I never really wanted to know." I explain.

His bow now lowers below his waist "Okay, well we'll go back and tell Rick and Deanna and they will help us figure something out"

"No, please. I don't want everyone to know what happened to me" I assert to him. He looks at me with something in his eyes. I turn away "please don't do that. That's why I don't tell anyone. Don't pity me"

"I don't pity you Shannon. I like you" he spills

"What?" I ask turning back to him

His eyes lift up to the roof before coming back to mine "I like yew" he says again, my guard falls a little bit curious as to what he means "you're a good person" he adds on. I smile, but mostly at my own stupidity. Of course he likes me as a friend, everyone does. Everyone loves a bimbo my mother would say.

I wait for him to say more but he doesn't, so I do instead "then please don't tell anyone what I told you" I whisper out. He bites his lower lip and I can tell he's frustrated "find another way?" I plead further.

He sighs. I hear the word fine emit from his mouth "on one condition" he adds. I let him finish before protesting the idea "I have to tell Rick."

"Why?" I basically whine.

"I won't lie to him, things don't go well for us when people hide things. Rick can help, he's got us where we are" he defends the man. I nod in agreement with hesitation. If he can trust me, then I should try and trust him.

We both go back to the blanket, only this time he sits next to me. We sit silently for a while, and I watch the way the sunlight changes through the cracks as the day passes. "When we go back, I'll talk to Rick and we will come up with a plan" he speaks.

"I'd like to go with you" I say in return.

He look at me from the side "yew don't have to do that. I know how hard it was for ya to tell just me"

"I know, but I should be the one to tell him this. It's better he hears it from me." I finish. Daryl nods and we spend another hour or so in silence. We head back to town before sunset.


	14. In Plain Sight

We get to the edge of the fence and I take a deep breath "stay here." He says before opening the entrance and leaving me alone. He's gone for about a minute before I hear him "okay, come through" he whispers through the wall. We make our way slowly into the compound. Daryl stands next to me, shading me from any window in case the three men are near the home. We walk around the side of the house and up the balcony. When we get inside, a few people look at us. "Rick?" He asks and demands at the same time. Just a moment passes before his heavy boots come through an archway "we need to talk" the two men have serious looks on their face and Rick nods. He leads the way and the three of us walk up the stairs.

Everyone goes back to what they are doing and I'm thankful for their willingness to ignore the clearly obvious tension our entrance aroused. Rick opens the door to one of the bedrooms and the three of us step inside. The bedroom is set up like the others only there are more chairs surrounding the desk. The desk is also not pushed against the wall. Rick walks around and sits behind it. Daryl and I sit in the chairs across from it. "This is kind of weird" I suggest once we're sitting.

"Ya, sorry about all this stuff. We use what we have" he shrugs "what's going on?" He directs his question to the both of us but he looks directly to Daryl.

He looks to me and I nod slowly to encourage myself to speak "it's about the new guys"

"huh?" Rick asks sitting up in the chair and resting his hands on his chin interested.

"The men Deanna let in here, they aren't good people." I state calmly saying this, even though I want to shout it out.

"We did the same screening with them as we did with you. They seem fine" he says in return.

"Here's what they didn't tell you." I say and then proceed to tell Rick most of what I told Daryl. His eyes stay focused on mine and he doesn't ask any questions as I speak.

"and you believe this?" he asks Daryl when I finish. His eyes move to my left. My eyes follow his in shock and my mouth gape opens a little bit thinking why the hell would I make this up? Daryl nods in response "I do too. I Just wanted to make sure we agreed" he says. I shut my mouth quickly relieved. "Why are you coming with this to me and not Deanna? She is the one who makes the decisions here."

"Cause then everyone will know" Daryl returns to him.

Rick nods and I wait in anticipation for someone to speak again. When I can't take it anymore I speak out myself "forget it, I should just leave anyway. If they see me, I'm dead. Or at least I'll wish I was" I ramble.

"You're not leaving" Daryl gets defensive in a grumble.

Rick stands up and the both of us look to him "relax" he says to the both of us. "So, they are not who they say they are. What are their real names?" He asks me now.

I shake my head "I only know the name of one of them. I've never seen the other 2 before." I tell him. He stares at me "Oh! Right, his names Clint" I swallow the bile churning in my stomach another time today.

"Which one was he?" He asks next.

"The taller man" I reply remembering the weight of him on top of me. I scoot uncomfortably in the chair "with the tattoos." I add on trying to give more detail.

"Ok. We can figure the rest out tomorrow." Rick turns and heads towards the door. He opens it and leaves.

I turn my face to Daryl and his cheeks are puffed out with anger "thank you for being here for this" I say to him. He looks back to me for a second, nods and then gets up and leaves the room. I sit for a few moments silently. When I walk down the stairs there are a few people lingering in the living space, just passing time before they go to sleep or off to do their jobs. Some are playing board games and 2 others are reading a book. I make my way to the corner of the room where I slept the night before and huddle against the wall, picking at the crochet blanket I have around my legs.

There is a knock on the door and everyone kind of turns in uncomfortable silence. People coming and knocking on your door is not something most of us thought would happen again. Someone opens the door and the voice freezes me.

"Howdy neighbors. We just thought we'd introduce ourselves, what do you say to a meal?" his low voice carries over to my ears.

Others in the room begin to shuffle around and meet the new neighbors. I know I need to move away but I can't seem to even breath. "Come in" Carol's voice invites them to cross inside. There's a body suddenly blocking my view from the entry way and I look up to the back of Daryl's body. I stay where I am and I hear Rick talking to the men. He walks them into the kitchen, passing the living area. Daryl's hand is now reached out for me to take and I do so subconsciously. We quickly and quietly make our way up the stairs and into the bedroom from earlier. He shuts the door behind us.

"Yer okay" he says in a hushed voice as I pace the bedroom floor with short breaths. It doesn't soothe me and I continue to move back and forth. A man's voice gets louder and I freeze again. He's coming up the stairs.

"Just want to freshen up, be right down" I hear him yell down the stairs. Daryl drags me into the closet in the bedroom and shuts the door quietly. I close my eyes and take a deep breath trying to remain calm. I hear the bathroom sink start to run and my heartbeat slows down a bit. The sink turns off and the bathroom door closes, I wait to hear the footsteps retreat down the stairs but instead I hear the door to the bedroom open. My breath picks up again and Daryl puts his finger to my mouth to stay quiet. I push my head into his chest to muffle my nerves. I feel his other hand move and I move my head slightly to see him maneuver a knife out of his pocket.

"crap, all crap" Clint mumbles shutting a dresser door. He moves over to the desk and opens more drawers. After he goes through the rest of them he hums out. With my face pushed into his chest I turn it to look through the cracks of the closet door. His eyes move slowly across the room before landing on the door. He moves his feet towards it and Daryl adjusts so I'm now behind him. He goes to the door but a cough from across the room stops him and his head turns away "oh, howdy Rick"

"You coming? We're gonna start grilling" the officer takes a step into the room and he eyes the man with caution.

"Yah lets go. You have a nice set up here, we're trying to think of ways to make that house our own, yanno" He lies through his teeth with a chuckle. Rick steps aside and lets Clint leave the room first, he shuts the door behind him and we wait for the footsteps to be nonexistent. Daryl opens the door and leaves the small space.

"this is insane" I whisper out walking out of the closet. I throw my hair back into a messy bun and take a seat at the foot of the bed.

Daryl stands in front of me "don't worry, we'll take care of this."

I slant my eyes up to look at him "right" I say, trying to believe it can be done. "So, where are you from?" I ask Daryl as he spins his knife around his pointer finger with his thumb. We've been waiting for some time now and I can't take being in my own head anymore.

He looks up but looks back down before answering "Northern Georgia" he answers my question without adding to further the conversation.

I sigh with frustration "do you talk to anyone besides Rick?" I ask bluntly. He doesn't look back up through his matted hair and I continue to poke the topic "you just sulk around, kill biters, and protect people?" he mumbles under his breath something incoherent. "What?" I ask sitting up further on the bed.

"Nuttin" he returns.

"oh, come on.. I'm so bored!" I exaggerate the word bored. After it comes out of my mouth I realize how childish I sound and how weird it is to be bored in the world as it is. I'm lucky to be behind walls. I let the shame sink in and fall further down the headboard. "Where were you when everything went to shit?" I ask him curiously, picking at the dirt under my fingernails.

"nowhere really" his voice is deep when he responds. I just nod my head at his response and continue to pick at my cuticles. "What bout you?" he asks me after a few minutes pass.

I look up shocked he actually asked me a question in return "same, I was just trying to find a new place to go" I explain simply.

"So, you from Virginia?" He asks a follow up. I shake my head no as a response without looking up. "Then how'd you end up here?" He asks another one.

"Just trying to get a fresh start" I laugh thinking of how many fresh starts I've been wanting since then.

"What were ya runnin' from?" He asks me.

I slant my head "who says I'm running from anything?" I ask coyly

"You ain't need a fresh start unless you runnin' from somethin'" he responds.

"Guess your right" I give in "I was running from family, or what some call family." I expose. He keeps his eyes trained in my direction waiting for more so I continue to explain "My father was abusive and my mother didn't lift a finger to stop it. I finally had enough and left everything behind." I sum it up.

"Why'd ya wait to leave?" He asks me.

I shrug and think for a moment before coming up with the words "Life happened, I was in a relationship and I was just stuck I guess" is the reasoning I give him. I let the words float around my head after I speak them and begin nodding slowly to confirm that was the reason. I never really thought about it before but it makes sense.

"So one day you just decided that was it?" He asks skeptically.

"Well, No" I say back quickly "After I moved out of my families home I started dating this guy Ryan. He's a piece of shit too." I add on for emphasis "this one night in our apartment" I go back to my story "we got into a fight and he beat me. Nothing new, it was my life cycle, so I was used to it. Only this time he beat me so bad he broke my ribs, my nose and I had a pretty damaged eye socket. I decided to stay at my parents house for the weekend to let Ryan cool off. When I got home the only thing my father said to me was 'that boy needs to learn how to not leave marks'." I pause letting the memories flood my head. "So that's when I left. I got in my friend's car the next night and didn't look back" I finish my story.

"Was Joey that friend?" He asks me another question. I turn my head and laugh. "What?" He asks me confused.

"First I can't get you to talk and now it's like I'm under interrogation" I chuckle lightly.

He mumbles "sorry"

"No. It's okay. It's fine, really" I say back before answering his question "yea, it was him"

"so you knew him before. Douche dick, I mean" He references Joey. I smirk slightly at the insult.

I nod my head twice "we were real close growing up." I stop, getting upset and choking back a tear from falling. I won't let him control me, I won't let this bother me.

"Yanno, me and my brother were never really that close" Daryl changes the subject.

"brother?" I ask in return. I never knew that and I wonder if he is still around.

It's like he read my mind because he responds "he's dead now" saying it while holding up his knife signaling that he turned into a walker.

"sorry" I mumble back.

"So'Kay'" he returns "we got split up and when we reunited he wasn't the same"

"Wow. I'm surprised you even saw each other again" I comment

"He wasn't the best of people but he was my brother" he stares off somewhere.

"And your parents?" I ask

"Drunk mother and piece of shit father" his eyes and eyebrows lift up.

"Wow, who woulda thought I'd have something in common with a silent warrior" I mock to him

"Silent what?" His forehead creases with wrinkles as he looks back at me.

My face beats red with embarrassment "sorry. I called you silent warrior when you guys first ran into me since I didn't know your name, it's just stuck in my head now" our conversation goes quiet and I can't help but think how creepy that came out.

After a few more minutes of silence he finds something to say "well you also know something about bows, where'd you learn that again?" He inquires.

"Oh ya, I took Archery in high school.. I did it for about 2 years" I explain simply.

"Why'd you stop?" He asks

I look down at my right arm "daddy broke my wrist and I just haven't picked one up since then." I say and think back to that afternoon at our house.

Daryl nods his head in understanding and we let our conversation end there.

I look down at my watch when I open my eyes and it's 1:13 in the morning. My body is slouched over and my back is against the headboard. I move my neck and it's kinked from lying on it wrong. I move it around about while searching the room and find that it's empty. I stand slowly and walk to the door. They should be gone by now but I should be careful just in case. When I open the door I hear muffled voices and gather my posture before slowly walking towards the steps.

I step down 4 steps and listen "we can't just kick them out, we don't know anything about the man they work for" Rick's muffled words fill my ears, and I know they are talking about Clint and the other 2 men.

"Then we kill them, they ain't good people" Daryl tries to keep his voice low and calm.

"We can't.. We don't know what there plan is, if they are communicating with anyone or who else they have out there. There are too many people here and we will not put Alexandria at risk" Rick forces in return "not now"

"If they see her, they'll kill her." Daryl asserts to his friend.

"We won't let that happen. We're going to put together a plan. We will sort this out" Rick's voice stays the same.

"She's not the only one at risk! What if they are scouting, huh?" Daryl suggests the dark idea.

Rick sighs as if he's pondering this and replies soon after "then we better put on a good show. I have to do a perimeter check now" Rick says before picking something up off a table.

I take this as my cue to retreat back into the bedroom and slowly retrace my steps up the stairs and into the bedroom.


	15. Stories & Scars

When I get back in the room I shut the door quietly and start to pack things into a bag. I can't put these people in danger. I knew when I saw them what they were here for. They must have been tailing me. They may have even been the ones to burn down the place I called home and I won't let it happen again, I won't let it happen here. I shove the bag under the bed and situate myself in bed waiting for the right time to leave undetected. If I want to slip Clint and his men again I can't wait, it needs to be tonight. I need to get far away before something bad happens. I set my watch alarm for 4:00 just in case I doze off and wait impatiently for time to go by.

The alarm begins to beep and I press the button in once to turn it off. I slip out of the bed and grab my bag. I reach the door handle but freeze before opening it. I turn quickly to the desk and find a piece of paper. I scribble on it quickly and leave it on the bed. I move back to the steps from earlier and listen for anyone who may still be awake. I know there are always 2 people up on watch at a time but they usually are making a perimeter check around this time. I slowly walk down the remaining steps and peek into the living room. I see Ricks familiar belt on the table side next to him and across the way Daryl's bow lay against the wall. I tip toe across the wooden floors into the kitchen. I peak out the window to the back door and make sure it's clear. I move quickly once I'm outside to the spot in the wall. I find it quickly and put distance between Alexandria and myself. After minutes of running I stop to figure out where to go next. My brain races with things I need and I know I need to make a plan. I decide to go to the run down shed Daryl showed me to gather my thoughts and get ready for my move. I get there within the hour and put my bag on the ground by the door. I sit on the hay bale and remove the knife and gun from my pants. I have 13 bullets in the gun in my hand and a pistol in my bag with 4 more. I have 3 food bars and a can of tuna in there as well. The first thing I need is food. I know I have to move more than 200 miles away from here to find somewhere they haven't hit yet. Maybe further if others have already been scavenging. I let out a sigh as the realization hits that's I'm already hungry. I move over to the backpack and take a bite out of one of the bars before replacing it. I sit for a few more moments trying to psych myself up for what's ahead. I hear a twig break outside and my head jerks in the direction it came from. I grab my knife and peak out through a crack in the boarded up window. I can't see anything and move away to the middle of the room. There's no normal grumbling a biter would make and my heart races. Did they follow me out? Is this it? I put the knife back in my pocket while going towards the gun. I bend down to lift it up slowly and get ready to run for it, I'm not going to make it easy for them. I get my gun and sling the bag around me. I tip toe to the door and take a deep breath. I count to three and swing it open, making a run for it. I don't get too far before something sharp punctures my leg. I stumble forward with pain, letting out a small scream of pain. I land face forward into the wet dirty leaves. I scramble forward quickly to reach for my gun. I run through the situation in my head. If I'm shot then I can't keep going, but I won't let them take me. If I can't take them then I'll have to end it myself. All the options run through my brain within seconds and I know the later is my only choice. I hear the twigs crack under the weight of pressure and flip over putting the gun to my temple.

"Jesus! What the fuck Shannon?" Daryl's bow is lowered and his eyes wide when he sees me in the position I am in.

I slowly release my finger off the trigger and let my hand fall with it to the ground. My breath continues to pick up but I can feel my heart beat slow down as I let the relief wash over me "what are you doing out here?" I question him with a hushed tone.

"Lookin' for yew" he responds coldly, throwing my note at the ground by my feet. I nod at him and remember the pain in my leg and go to reach for it with my other hand. "Damn it!" He says coming closer and closing the gap between us.

"It's nothing" I try to wave him away when he squats to look at it. He turns his head to the side with frustrated eyes. I roll mine in response and go to stand up to show him.

I stand up putting as little pressure on the leg as possible and take two steps forward "see" I glance back smirking. I take another 3 steps forward and stumble. Daryl is still close behind me and helps steady my balance so I don't go down. He lifts up my arm and wraps it around his back. He walks with me back towards the old shed. When we get back in the shed he helps me sit against the wall "lucky it was just a graze" I smile to him putting some pressure on my leg to try and stop the bleeding.

"Let me see" he says trying to move my hand away.

"Stop. It's fine!" I push away some more.

"Shannon" his voice is lower and he forcefully but gently grabs a hold of my hand to move it away. He tries to look at the cut but after a few moments he sighs "I can't really tell what the damage is" he grunts "we have to go back. Denise can fix it up" he says standing up and reaching his arm out for me to take.

I ignore his hand and keep my eyes trained on the other wall "I'm not going back" I mumble after his hands been stretched for an awkward amount of time.

"And why not?" He asks angrily letting his arm fall

His tone doesn't sit right with me and I lash out in response "because I'm going to get everybody killed if I stay there! God, Daryl! I'm not going to risk all of Alexandria just so I can feel "safe" and have a home. I can't have any more blood on my hands!"

"What blood?" He snorts in response.

I glare at him through squinted eyes "I'm starting to put it together. That fire at my old camp, it wasn't just a coincidence!" I explain

He sighs and sits down next to me "you don't know that" he says. My eyes dart towards him again with the same flare from before "we can handle them. We've dealt with people like this before" he tries to assure me.

"They aren't people" I retort to his response "they're the monsters" I whisper in addition.

"We've dealt with them too" Daryl adds on to my doubt. My glare softens a little and I know I'm too tired to keep arguing. "At least let me get a better look and wrap it up for now, yew can't leave like this" he says now.

I ponder his words for a few moments. He is right, The cut is running a lot of blood so it's not something that I can ignore. The sooner I deal with it the sooner I can move on "fine" I sigh through gritted teeth. I shift my butt off the ground and unbutton the jeans.

"What are you doing?" Daryl asks with a blush turning his head away.

"I'm taking off my jeans" I answer "how else you going to get a better look?" I ask him one in return raising one eyebrow. He nods once and I proceed to pull the jeans from my body. The denim stinging my cut as I slowly pull it off, the dry blood peeling off and the wet blood trying to keep the fabric in place. I replace my bottom on the ground and bend my right leg up. He puts his hand gently on my leg to asses the wound "If you were out looking for me, why even shoot?" I ask as he keeps his attention to the cut.

"Hmmm" he responds not even hearing what I said.

I chuckle "why did you shoot if you were out looking for me?" I repeat the question.

"Well it's the middle of the fucking morning, I figured you'd have a light on. Ain't no walkers gonna have one so I thought you were one of em" he says. He removes his hand now and takes another bandanna out of his pocket.

"You have an endless supply of those things?" I joke as he wipes blood away.

"I'm gonna need em with yew around" he says in return. His voice and facial expression doesn't let off any indentation he said it as a joke and I decide to take it as a one and not as an insult. He starts to rip off fabric from his shirt.

"Thought you were a good shoot?" I joke again with him as he wraps it around my leg.

A noise emits from him and it's something I haven't heard before. He chuckled, "I was a tad pre occupied trying to find yew before anything else did" he responds right away.

This strikes something inside "why do you even care?" I ask him as he ties a final knot.

"I told ya, I like yew" he shrugs before looking up and into my eyes. The sunrise is shining through the cracks and it brightens his green oculars. They look like new leaves on a spring day and I lean in closer to him. I find myself not stopping and pushing my lips against his. They kiss for a moment before he pulls away. "What was that?" He asks.

"Sorry" is all I can think to respond with. We look at each other in silence. An awkward moment passes between us before his lips are pressed against mine again. As we find the correct pace to continue at I notice just how rough his lips are, and how his scruffy face feels against mine and I enjoy every bit of it. As are pace continues I let my tongue run across the bottom of his lip. His hand reaches around and is on the small of my back pulling me closer to him. I move my body slowly, carefully so I don't break a part our kiss and straddle him. His mouth opens further and our tongues find one another and linger with passion. Our kiss lasts for a while before I pull away. Our eyes open and his asks without words why I stopped. I smile to him "my leg" I say back lowly. He looks down and notices the awkward position I moved my leg too and the blood trailing below the bandanna dripping onto him.

"Oh, right" he shuffles a little under my weight. I slowly move my other leg around and sit on the other side of him. He runs his hands through his hair and we sit in silence.

"Uhh, Daryl" I finally say after sitting in silence for what felt like hours but was only minutes.

"Yah?" He responds

"Can I get those back?" I question nodding my head in the general direction where my jeans sit.

He moves quickly "oh, right. Of course". He grabs them and walks back over to hand them to me. I stand up slowly to get a better balance to put them back on. "Let me help" he says kneeling down. I ignore the obvious tension that sits between us as he kneels down to help guide my injured leg through the jeans leg. He goes to help with my other leg and is suddenly frozen.

When I feel his body tense I find his eyes and follow where they linger. He's looking at my inner thigh and his mouth contorts to what looks like a frown. I go to move the jeans further up my body but his hands stop it as he gently touches the mark.

"It's nothing" I try to assure him for the second time that day.

He looks up to me "yew know I don't believe that.." His eyes go back to where his fingers are tracing "what is this?"

I take a deep breath in and hold it for a moment. I haven't had to tell anyone about this since it happened, I figured if I kept it a secret then it really doesn't exist. I let my air out slowly "I'm branded" I say ashamed.

His eyes jolt back to mine and they flicker with something dark. "What do you mean?" He asks, keeping his hand on my upper thigh under the markingz

"Well, the letter is where I was found or traded I guess. They mark you with the state so they know where you came from." I say as I trace the outline of the capital G engraved deep into my leg marking Georgia. Daryl's finger follows mine and I do my best not to shake. I stop tracing the G but his finger continues on.

He traces the number on my leg "and the number?" Removing his hand from my leg.

"Well there's 5 numbers. A number 1 means your everyone's property in the camp. They can have you whenever they want. Any man in any standing can use you for sex." I begin to divulge into the grim details these horrible people impose unto others. "A number 2 is similar but.." I pause thinking back to the way it was worded to me. I shudder with the thoughts and try to sum up what I can "Basically the men with titles who have jobs will pay to have sex with them, the girls aren't as "low class" as a level 1" I snarl at the disgusting words told to me when I was being carved into. "If your a 3, you bear the children. Any men who can afford it and want to have a child will use a surrogate of their choice. This woman is then theirs to have until they produce a son to carry on their lineage" a frown falls on my face thinking of the barbaric actions these monsters take.

"And if it's a girl?" Daryl asks me.

"They send them to a different camp to grow up, I think." I say to him. I decide to move on, finish explaining the burns and move on from this topic "you're lucky if you get to be a 4. If you're a 4, you are a wife or something. You're sold to a man who may or may not still have a conscious and you can live within the camp pretty normally. These are the woman in the community who can offer something in return besides just sex. They usually work in the medical field or in the militia. Some don't even need to be married." I finish closing my mouth letting him take it all in.

He looks me in the eyes now "and a 5?" He asks, tracing the number softly.

I take a deep breath in and exhale it out before replying "a 5 means you're reserved for the leader." I let my eyes trail away from him.

"Because you're a virgin?" He asks knowing just a little bit of why I was being taken in the first place.

I nod to confirm "he gets them all, and whenever he is done with you, you become a 0" I shrug. His eye lids squint together not following so I elaborate further "they cross out your branding and you become nothing. They told me they throw this party when they bring in a new virgin. She sits next to the leader and is forced to watch the horrific acts everyone imposes on the old one. When there done, you'll wish you were dead" I tell him what I was told.

"Shannon" he whispers out.

"It's fine, I got away" I take a step back pulling up the stained jeans. When I'm dressed he takes two steps closer to me and pulls me close.

We are face to face but I keep my eyes trained on the freckle near his lip. "They won't hurt yew again" he promises me. I nod once but he doesn't accept it "hey" he says lowly getting my attention. My eyes go to his "they won't" he urges me again.

"Ok" I whisper out. He leans in, kisses me on the forehead and pulls a strand of hay out of my hair after he pulls away. "But I can't just sit around and wait for them to find me." I confide "it's too hard."

"You won't" he says to me. "I'll come up with something" he adds.


	16. Plans

"Daryl, this won't work" I confess as he walks towards the door. We stayed in the shed the entire day. He didn't care that no one knew where he was, he wanted to stay and come up with a plan.

He turns around when I say that "yes, it will!" His eyes light up with determination. He walks back over to where I'm sitting and sits next to me again. I look over to him and notice his lips. I felt safe when I was kissing them and I want to feel safe again. I blink and force the thought out of my head. "Don't you want to stay?" He asks

I shake my head up and down "of course but it's not that simple" I return.

He sighs and rolls his eyes "everything that's worth having, comes with trials worth withstanding" he says to me. I squint my eyes at him as his words hit me hard. He may be right but I'm better at running then I am staying. How can I tell that to him? How am I to expect other people to withstand my trials and tribulations with me?

"I can't ask you all to do anything for me, you've all done so much already" I try more to convince him to let me go.

"you don't know Rick like I do, he'd insist. He will come up with a plan. He'll make sure everyone understands this is life or death." his country accent returns when he says this.

"yea but it's life or death for me, not them" I respond.

He stands up with force "say that to your camp that burned down. If they were the ones to do that" he points towards the general direction Alexandria is "we need them gone.. like yesterday!" his words hit me in the gut as the deep tone of his voice comes off with disdain and anger for the men. Although I feel nauseous with what he said, I know that he is right. They'll burn this place down to if they want to. I nod once signaling for him to go. "I'll be back in a couple of hours, and if you still want to go after I explain the plan then I'll drive you out to your motorcycle myself!" He says confidently "just stay hidden and stay quiet" he finishes before opening the door.

"Wait!" I say to stop him. He turns around quickly and I don't know why I told him to wait. I just stare at him for a moment before nodding. He looks to me for a moment longer and leaves the me in the shed. I listen to his footsteps but they quickly fade away. The pit that's been in my stomach since Clint arrived grows again as I wait alone for Daryl's return. I only leave the shed once to use the bathroom. The sun was setting and I wanted to get it done with before it was completely dark. It's not that I was afraid of being out there with the biters, it's just that I was afraid of being out there with Clint still so close to me, with the fear of what could still happen to me while I was alone. I return from relieving myself and take the same position against the wall. I try to search my head for better times to think about but no memories come to view. I take out my knife and begin to carve into the old rotting wood what he was saying to me earlier, about trials.

The full moon shines into the dark room and I look through the cracks at the sky. I start to count the stars. After reaching around 300 I think to myself, what is taking him so long? At that moment I hear footsteps return and I lift the gun off the floor. They get closer and I keep my hand gripped ready to lift it up and pull he trigger if I have to. "I'm coming in" Daryl whispers. I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding and release the gun. Daryl opens the door slightly and slides in, closing it behind him. "Okay" he says lowering his bow and placing it on the ground. I wait for him to continue "we got a plan" he says as he squats down next to me.

"Ok?" I raise my eyebrows to him.

"Well, they are expecting a virgin so why don't you.." He pauses and rubs his hand around his neck before speaking again "yanno, get pregnant?" He raises his eyebrows while clenching his mouth when he's finished. His jawline strengthens as he does this and my eyes are staring at the rugged line with disbelief.

"What?" I manage to sputter out "you want me to get pregnant?" I ask baffled "that's totally insane! I'm not going to.."

Daryl interrupts me "no idiot, you don't gotta be pregnant, just pretend" I put my head down embarrassed at the fact I didn't think of that before I opened my mouth "then they would have no reason to take you and we can get them out of Alexandria."

"Wishful thinking" I mutter underneath my breath.

"Shannon" Daryl's voice is serious and my eyes flicker up from the floor.

I sigh as he waits "you don't know they'll have no reason to leave. I left Clint to die! At least as a virgin I have something for him to offer to his leader. He wouldn't have a second thought about killing a pregnant bitch, I'm useless then" I explain

"Then what else can we do?" Daryl's voice is lower. He continues to try and convince me this is the way to go. As I stay seated the pain in my leg begins to throb more and I find myself drifting away from what he is saying.

"I don't know" I sigh sadly when he stops talking for more then a few minutes. His eyes are looking over my side at something but I'm not sure what.

"You still want to leave?" He asks. I look up expecting to see sadness in his eyes, or something telling me to stay. Only, I see nothing in them to help make my decision for me. The only way I know to respond is to shrug back at him. "Well if you don't know if you want to stay then you want to go" his voice is scratchy.

I go to say something back but I don't know what and my mouth hangs open a little in disbelief. I didn't expect him to be angry at me. My stomach sits in knots as he moves through the room grabbing the stuff I had and putting it all in my bag. He stands at the door a few minutes later and turns to me "wait, we're going now?" I ask helping myself off the floor

"Ain't got time to change your mind, I've got people to git' rid of" he throws back the shed door and leaves. I follow behind him, limping on my leg.

As we walk forward I'm reminded of when we first walked the woods together. Although it was only a month or so back it feels like years ago I was trying to find a good time to escape from them. I didn't know who these people were or what they wanted from me. I was afraid. I had a good reason to run then, but what am I running from now? Rick, Maggie, Deanna, Glenn, Daryl.. They opened their home to me when they didn't have to. They could have left me in that tree, he could have left me in the woods but none of them did that. Yet, here I am leaving them behind with monsters. I think back to the last few weeks and how comfortable I was there. Daryl's words pop back into my head and I know staying at Alexandria is something worth fighting for. Although all I want to do is run away, I catch myself stopping short in the woods. I wait for Daryl to stop but he continues forward determined. I have to call out to him before he stops and turns around. "I'm not running anymore." I say in a flat tone when he sees me.

His body turns in my direction before responding "then walk, only another mile till we get to the truck" he turns back around and starts to walk forward again.

"No. I mean I'm not going to run away from this. I want to stay" I call forward. My words echo and even in the dark I can see Daryl tense up. We hear a grumble and I grab my knife from its resting position. I slowly inch towards a tree for some cover but hear something behind me. I swing around quickly to find a biter getting closer to me. I raise my arm up ready to strike it, but Daryl shoots the walker between the eyes before I'm close enough to strike. I look down at the used to be human corpse and watch as Daryl pulls the bow from its head shortly after.

My eyes follow the bow up to his eyes as he replaces it in the quiver "you want to stay?" He repeats. Again, I hope for some kind of twinkle or smile to show but he keeps a straight face.

"Yes. But I'm not going to pretend to be pregnant, I won't let them change me or the decisions I've made." I say firmly to him.

He nods "then you got a plan?" His one eye brows raises.

"Yea, I think I do!" I smirk back. I'm not sure where my new found confidence has come from but I'm going with it because I know the moment I don't, it'll fade away for good.


	17. Impromptu Meeting

"So what's this plan?" Daryl whispers over to me as he helps me limp towards the town.

I keep my eyes trained in front of me keeping my determination. I shake my head a little before answering him "I'm going to confront them" another smile comes across my lips.

"Wow. Wow, hold up" he returns stopping his feet. I look to him with questioning eyes "you're just gonna go up to him and confront him? What the hell are yew gonna say?" He asks

"I'm going to call him out on his shit. There's no reason for him to be here, he has a place to be. They go and never come back or they die." I say with determination.

His eyes squint when I speak but he waits to respond "And if they come back?" His tone is more harsh then it was before.

"We beef up patrol and we kill them. With all those weapons we brought back from the storage unit, we will be fine." I assure.

Daryl blinks a few times "Thas really what yew wanna do?" I nod my head up and down once and he sighs "then you'll do that. But let's get Denise to look at your leg. You couldn't threaten a pig walking up to it like that" he chuckles a little while saying this.

"I could too threaten a pig!" I say back to him with a smile. His eyebrows raise back at my response and we laugh together for a moment. It wasn't the best come back but it was the only thing that came to mind.

"Alright. Let's get back and tell Rick the plan" he puts his arm around my waist and we start forward again.

Daryl goes ahead of me to check the surrounding area for Clint and the other 2. He's gone for about 15 minutes so he should be inside by now. I lean against a tree impatiently waiting to get back inside the walls. It's funny how mere hours before I wanted to be as far away from here as possible but now I'm going back to face my fears. "About time" I joke with him as foot steps come closer to where I'm waiting. I swing myself around the tree with a big smile but it quickly fades.

"Waiting for somebody?" The man asks me.

"Oh. Sorry." I mutter through a panted breath. Calm down, you have to calm down. I tell myself. He hasn't done anything, just breathe normally. "I'm Shannon" I smirk and reach my hand forward.

"I'm Flax" he reaches his hand back in return. He shakes it with a firm grip and after he releases I wipe the sweat against my jeans. I see him eye my injured leg and furrow his eyebrows together. "Flax, that's an interesting name" I say quickly.

"Mmmhmm" he says before spitting to the side "say" his eyes no longer furrow and he takes a step closer "you look mighty familiar" he cocks his head to the side trying to place me.

My heart rate quickens but I stand my ground and don't move away. You've never met him before, there is no way he can know you. "I get that a lot actually" I fake smirk back to him.

"No. No. I've seen you before" he points a finger at me before moving it up to his face thinking.

I stay where I am and just keep up the facade "well I don't know, I doubt I'd forget someone with such a unique name" I bat my eyelashes a little. Maybe I can flirt my way through this.

He stops when he is just a few feet away. My heart keeps pounding but I keep my pace normal. After a few more moments of him staring his eyes blink twice quickly and his demeanor changes back to normal again "how come I haven't seen you around in there?" He asks me taking a step back now.

"I'm a pretty private person" I come up with.

He laughs "must be if your coming out here to meet someone" he looks around.

"Oh. No. It's not like that" I say back quickly. I don't know why I felt the need to be defensive about that to this stranger.

"Oh, so your not meeting a guy out here?" He raises his eye brows again and his grin opens showing crooked teeth.

"Why I'm out here and who I'm out here meeting is really none of your concern, Flax, is it?" I tease trying to get him to leave.

"I guess not. Yanno, it's not safe out here all by yourself." He nods towards my injured leg.

I look down at it and turn my attention back to him quickly "fine! If you must know" I say with an exacerbated sigh. "I asked Daryl to teach me to shoot.." I come up with on the fly. He nods waiting for me to explain the injury "I'm a very clumsy person, kind of shot myself" I shrug.

"You what?" He laughs out loud.

"SHHH! Keep it down!" I hush at him.

He composes himself and nods in understanding "you shot yourself? How th'fuck does that even happen?" He asks in a hushed tone.

"Well, I guess I didn't actually shoot myself..I was trying to load it while he collected his bows and ya.." I shrug glancing down at my leg.

He shakes his head "remind me not to go on a run with you"

"Hey! I'm one hell of a shot.." I say and he raises his eyebrows with a toothless grin "with a gun" I add on and we both chuckle. A few moments pass when I remember who he is. I can't let my guard down around him, I don't know anything about him.

My posture stiffens and he notices "you need help getting back? He just left you here?" Flex looks around a little at the surrounding area.

"Well, we didn't really tell anyone we were leaving so he's just making sure we're clear to go in" I lie.

"Clear? Why would it have to be clear?" He questions.

Coming up with all these lies is starting to exhaust me but I keep pulling things together to appease his curiosity "I'm still new here, so they don't really let me go off on my own." I roll my eyes.

"I know what you mean..." He responds "I had to  
scale the fence to get out for a fuckin' smoke" he takes out a pack from his back pocket "I can't even do that outside without someone eyeing me" he lights up and offers me one. I decline and he places them back in his pocket.

"Well, I should get going, Daryl will be back any minute and I gotta get this leg looked at" I walk forward a little as steadily as I can.

"Good luck" he says as I start to pass him.

I mumble back to him "thanks" and look down as our shoulders brush each other.

I walk without looking back and keep my eyes trained on the ground. "Hey, Shay?" He calls out. I turn around and his eyes light up with recognition. Shit. "I knew I knew you from somewhere" he walks closer to me throwing his half smoked cigarette onto the damp leaves. I turn my body towards his but take small steps backwards.

Why did I answer him? I haven't gone by Shay since after the accident. He takes something out of his other back pocket and unfolds it while continuing forward. My curiosity stops me and he holds up a photo. My face burns red with embarrassment and anger. In his hand is a Polaroid and in the photo I stand with my hands above my head, most my body exposed as a man brands me. "Give me that" I demand reaching out to take it from his grasp.

"Not so fast" his grin is devilish as he keeps the photo close to his body now. "Someone's been looking for you" his eyes darker brown then they were before.

"Stay away from me!" I growl to him reaching my hand to my belt for my gun. Before I could get there he's pointing a gun at me.

"Stop, or I put one between the eyes" he demands.

I keep my head bowed down in thought but I glare upwards to see him "if he's looking for me, you wouldn't kill me" I try and deduce his true thought in the matter.

He snorts in response "then I'll just shoot the other leg" he points the gun towards my leg and shoots. The bullet doesn't hit me but I feel the speed of the bullet as it glides pass my leg and into the earth behind me "test me" he says afterwards. I push my hands forward in defeat and raise them slowly above my head. He keeps the gun focused on me as he steps closer. He removes the gun and knife from my possession before standing in front of me again. "Move" he demands me forward. I turn slowly away from the camp and begin walking. I glance behind me and the barrel of the gun is trained towards my lower body. I take deep breaths to try and calm myself down. Where the hell is Daryl?!


	18. Keep Fighting

"Keep moving" he demands me forward further into the woods. I try not to look back towards him but I can't help it. Anytime I hear a twig break under his feet or a stack of leaves I glance for a glimpse, hoping to see my disheveled friend knocking Flax to the ground.

"Where are we going?" I ask him after my breath has calmed. If he doesn't find me first, I'll have to find my own way out of this mess.

"Not sure.. Sm'place where I can figure out what ima do witcha." He admits to me.

"What's that mean?" I ask more questions, trying to keep him talking.

"See, Clint's been ona mission to find him a suitable virgin to present back home since you escaped. We haven't come across as many as good lookin' as you though. He's been mighty angry lately." He explains as I dredge forward.

"Soooo.." I drag out "you're just gonna hand me over?"

"Maybe. Like I said, need to figure out what I wanna do witcha." He spits out to the side.

I don't really know how to else to keep him talking and my stomach is in such knots that I'm forcing the bile to stay down in my stomach. Instead, I change my train of thought and look ahead of me. The wet leaves are covering up branches but I can't tell what ones are big and strong enough to take him down. I decide to fake a fall from my injured leg and see how he reacts. If he gets close enough I can manage a decent hit. If he keeps the gun trained on me, I'll need to come up with a better plan. I take a hard step forward with my good leg and fall to the ground using that knee as the main point of force. I bend my knee under my body and try to protect the injured leg from further injury. I slam my hands into the dirt for a more dramatic effect and slide my face further into the ground.

"Get up!" Flex calls over to me. I bend my arms for a lift and glare back at him. He stands behind me keeping the gun forward. Shit, I say to myself.

I roll my eyes "could use a little help!" I growl to him hoping for him to step closer. He eyes me inquisitively but I see his eyes shift and I know he's going to help. As he begins lowering the gun my mind shifts again and I decide to act now. I dig my hands around into the dirt and find whatever I can to wack him with. My hands find a stick with some weight and I grip it tightly. His hand with the gun is to his side closest to me and he reaches over with the other hand to grab my arm. Before he can take hold I swing the branch upward and smack him in the side of the head. He falls on his ass but his hand still grasps the gun. I stand up quickly and hit him again, this time aiming for his right arm.

"Ahh" he screams back as the gun flies a few feet away. His eyes meet mine with determined rage and he goes to stand and lunge at me. I raise the stick high and bash it over his head before he tackles me to the ground. We tumble into the murk and he lies almost as dead weight on top of me. As he tries to regain full consciousness I try to wriggle from underneath him. I wriggle my body through the dirt and leaves and just as I get my legs free and go to grab the gun something grabs my left foot and jerks it backwards.

My injured leg burns as it gets pulled in the opposite direction "ahhhhh!" I screech as I try and fight his pull. I twist so my back is on the ground and try and deflect him with a kick. My foot meets his stomach but he only responds with a heavy breath out and a tighter grip on my leg.

"C'mere bitch!" He mumbles grotesquely while climbing on top of me. I try to turn my body against his to crawl away but he keeps his legs around me tightly. He pushes his hand into my chest and I form a fist with my hands and try and punch him off of me. My attempts fall flat as he sits up straight on top of my torso area and releases his hand from my chest. I go to take a deep breath in and he grunts "you shouldn't have done that, you cunt" his stained teeth stare back at me in a grin.

I suck in my breath deeper and spit at him "you're a pig!" I growl after. His dark eyes don't adjust and he grabs my hands swinging at him and raises them bent above me. "Get off me!" I scream.

"You're really going to regret that!" He says putting both hands together freeing his right hand. He moves his free hand down to my button and struggles to undo it.

I fight as much as I can against him but he's too heavy. He finally unbuttons them and pulls them down an inch or so at a time per leg. "Stop!" I scream out. I won't let him do this, i'd rather die to a biter than be attacked by this scum.

"Clint ain't giving this ass to the leader" he says grabbing a hold and squeezing it. I continue to fight and scream hoping a biter gets here soon to distract him. He tries to unbutton his pants "stay still, bitch!" he gives me a right hook and everything spins.

I know I need to keep fighting but my head can't see things right. I hear him cackle at my fleeting strength and screams and attempt to unbutton again. He successfully does and lowers his pants. I continue to fight and he must have accepted my hit as a defeat and his grip loosens of my hands. I get a hand free and go to push him off. He laughs at my feeble attempt and quickly regains his power over me. "Help. Please" I go to yell more but it comes out just above a whisper.

"Nothin' like your first time" Flax mocks leaning down by my ear. He pushes his head into my hair and sniffs. I move my head to the side and he pushes his mouth to mine. I try and pull away but my head is sunk into the ground. I try and bite his lip hard but he manages to pull away without any real damage done. He wipes the small amount blood I do see away "enough with this crap" he puts his free hand back down to my jeans to make sure they are down enough.

"Stop! Stop! Help! Please!" I whimper out as loud as I can in fear as his hands touch my stomach. I manage to free my hand again and try and push him off of me. He gets angry and hits me across the face again. This time I taste the blood from my own mouth. My body is spinning on the ground and my eyes are heavy with exhaustion. I know what is about to happen, and now part of me is glad I'm about to pass out so I'm not awake for it. I tell myself to keep fighting. Fight till the end. As he adjusts himself on top of me for a better position to enter me, his eyes go wide and his face goes dark. His grip loosens around my hands and I lower them. His eyes drop with his head to look down at his stomach and pointing out is the tip of an arrow.

As he grasps the injured area with his hand he falls sort of forward and off of me and I wriggle underneath and to the side escaping. I quickly pull my bottom garments up all the while staying aware of Flex next to me "Shannon!" The low voice is next to me and I turn my head to him. I see his mouth moving but I hear nothing. The adrenaline is gone and everything goes black.


	19. Getting Back

I open my eyes to a dim room. I let them adjust for a moment before I begin to panic at the memory of what was happening to me. I sit up straight and instantly take a look at my surroundings.

"Hey, hey take it easy" Daryl is next to me putting his hand on top of mine. I turn my hand underneath his and squeeze it. He's real, he's here, and I'm safe. He doesn't squeeze mine in return but continues to look at me with concerned eyes.

"You stopped him, right?" I whisper. He nods once to my question and the tears flow out of my eyes. As I start to sob I can feel Daryl tense beside me. I take that as my cue to release his hand and instead use it to wipe away the tears that are falling. "Thank you" I try and get out but the sobbing continues.

"I shouldn't have left ya out there alone" he returns understanding what I was trying to say. "I'm sorry Shannon" he follows up.

His apology stops me and I look to him through the water that's built up around my eyes "this wasn't your fault" I say with a sniffle. He shrugs lightly not accepting my words and looks away. "Hey" I say getting his attention again "it wasn't" I repeat firmly when he looks back to me. He nods a little nod in response and I accept that.

A few moments pass before he decides to speak again "I was talking with Glenn when I heard a gun shot.." He trails off for a moment "I was worried. I thought maybe some walkers ran into you. Glenn and I ran out as fast as possible, but you were gone." He looks away from me momentarily.

"Flax got the better of me" I say to him when he doesn't start soon after.

He nods once I'm sure already assuming something similar "we started off in all directions looking for you and then I heard a voice calling for help from a distance" he explains. "I was afraid you were bitten. That I would be too late" he is looking at the floor again this time. I want to say something but I have nothing to say. I don't know what he's trying to get at, so instead I just wait in the silence to see if he continues. "I saw his body hunched over and I knew he was on top of you. I shot as fast I could" he says.

"Is he.. Dead?" I question at this point.

"Should be" he mutters under his breath. "I thought he was a walker. I was.. I missed his head completely and shot him in the torso." He explains. "When I got closer and realized the situation I wanted him dead, wish I wasn't so shaky" his eyes glaze for a moment and I can see the anger he's feeling. "Anyway.. After you passed out I carried you back here and left Glenn to deal with Flax." he says.

"thank you" I say again, only this time in a whisper. He just nods at my appreciation and we sit silently next to one another. Some time passes before either of us say something more "When do we go back?" I ask Daryl. I don't mind being in the torn up shed with him, but my leg continues to pulse with pain and my body aches from the attack.

Daryl looks up and speaks when we connect "we can go whenever you're up for it. You've been out a couple hours so they should have Flax somewhere detained now." he says while clenching his fists.

I nod "I'd like to get some real rest" I smirk to him. He just nods in response and stands up. He steps closer to me to help me stand and I take his hand. I stand up slowly but I still get dizzy and grab onto his forearm for support. He takes a hold of my elbow and waits for me to move before letting go. We walk to the door slowly and he opens it for me, letting me exit first.

"I need a break" I finally say after thinking about it for a few minutes now. Normally, I try to hold back from slowing him down but I can't go any further. I lean against a tree closing my eyes to ease the pain coming from my leg and head and to try and stop the spinning that started.

"whatever yew need" Daryl comes to my side with a bottle of water. I take the bottle and raise it to my lips. I let the dull taste run down my dry throat.

I chuckle handing the water back to him "I'm always slowing you down" I say when he eyes me, trying to keep a grin on for him to see.

"naw, yer good" he says taking a sip himself before replacing it. I hunch over putting my head between my knees feeling a bought of nausea come on. "Yew alright?" He questions taking one small step closer.

"Ya, fine" I push out my hand to assure him. I lift my body up from my knees to show him I'm okay, but the trees spin in front of me and I put my head back down. I try to keep my knees from shaking but I quickly fall down on top of them. "Shannon, you okay" he leans down to me. He must notice something off and puts his hand to my forehead "you're burnin' up" he says quickly before adjusting his body. He scoops me into his arms.

I protest as I'm lifted into the air "you don't need to carry me, I'll be fine. We are almost there, anyway" I bargain.

"stop arguin', We'll get back faster this way" He retorts in his normal gruff tone. Although I feel tension between us as I'm pressed against his chest, I like the feeling of security it's giving me. His eyes stay focused ahead and I take this time to really look at him. His face is tanned from all the time he spends out in the sun. His eyes carry bags underneath them that I never noticed to be as dark and his beard is even more unkempt than when we first met. I keep my eyes trained to his face and my eyes find his lips. The way they are pressed together with determination, the beauty mark that sits right above them. However, I am always being drawn back to his blue eyes. His eyes are filled with so many stories. Dark and haunting, I can't help but wonder how he came to be who he is. "Stay with me Shann!" I hear him call to me but if sounds so far away.

"Mm here" I mumble back through closed lips, being too tired to even open them.


	20. Haunting Photos

My eyes open slowly, the crust around the corner of one of my eyes making it stick a bit more then the other. As I force it open a tear forms from the struggle.

"Hey" I get out with a scraped voice when I see Daryl sitting at the side of the bed hunched over.

He sits up straight "oh sorry. Yew been awake long?" He says rubbing his hand through his tussled hair.

"Just now" I return with less of a scratch.

"You kay?" He asks eyeing me. I look at him confused and he reaches up and wipes the tear from my eye.

"Oh, no I'm fine. Just tired" I move my hand to my eyes now to remove any lingering crust. "Have I been out long?" I ask.

"16 hours or so" he shrugs back.

I nod once before sitting up a little "ow" I say as my body aches with pain. I move my right leg over the edge of the bed and drag the left leg to follow suit.

"Where are you going?" He asks me standing up to help me.

"I've been out for 16 hours" I grunt as I stand, taking his arm for support "I really have to pee" I say blatantly.

"Oh. Right. I could call down to Maggie if ya want help. Maybe get ya some crutches?" He suggests as I begin to slowly move forward.

"No. I can do it, just needed to get up and moving. I'll be fine" I assure him letting go of his arm and moving forward on my own. Daryl lets me move forward without his support but stays close behind. I reach the restroom and he retreats back a few steps as I close the door. I walk in front of the mirror and finally get a look at myself. My lip is swollen with a cut where Flax hit me and there's a bruise on my right eye. The other scrapes are minor in comparison to those. I move my hand down my leg and lift up the hospital gown to see the injured leg. There is a bandage taped on and I remove it to take a look. It's worse than I thought. The bruise is every color one could possibly be. I run my finger gently over the dozen or so stitches that hold it together. The bruise hasn't reached around the stitches yet and it stays bright red. I use the restroom and wash my hands and face. When I open the door, Daryl moves from where he was standing before I closed the door to help me back into the room. I sit on the bed and move my left leg up first. I lift my right leg and wince in pain. I catch Daryl staring at my leg with a pained expression "not as bad as it looks" I try and convince him before flattening the gauze down again.

"Liar" he replies sitting back down in the chair. "I'm sorry bout that. I should've been more careful" he mutters out loud.

"I shouldn't have ran away. It's my fault and my fault alone." I argue in return to his apology.

"Damn it Shannon, just accept my apology, will ya?" He retorts back to me annoyed.

I give him a side glance "sorry" I say taken a back by his reaction.

He puffs out "s'fine" and stays slouched in the chair. I don't know what more to say so I lay down quietly.

A few minutes pass when Carol walks into the room "oh, you're up!" She smiles towards me walking to the side of my bed facing Daryl. "Hanging in there?" She asks while gesturing to my leg.

"Ya. Thanks" I say back.

"Well I was just here to tell Daryl that Rick is having a meeting with the group soon." She says now directing her attention to him.

"Ok." He says back to her.

She goes to leave "you can go Daryl, I'm okay" I tell him when I realize he was staying behind.

"Oh, he won't go anywhere dear" Carol says turning her head to me and giving me a smile. Daryl coughs then and my attention is directed back to him. "I'll keep you posted" she waves her hand as she leaves the room.

I shrug silently to myself and close my eyes to rest "I'm fine here Daryl. Go to the meeting" I mumble through a tired breath when I feel myself drifting.

"Okay" he says back. I smirk and let myself drift away completely.

I blink open my eyes easily this time and see Daryl sitting on the side of the bed "what? What's wrong?" I ask him. I move my hand from where our fingers are almost touching to wipe my face and feel the liquid of a tear on my cheek.

"Nothing. You were having another night terror" he explains.

"Oh" I respond. "I'm.." I go to say but he gives me a quick glare and I stop myself from finishing the sentence.

"How'd the meeting go?" I ask now, changing the subject. He shrugs "didn't you go?" I ask.

"Naw, stayed here." He responds.

"But I told you to go." I say sadly. He really didn't have to stay with me.

It looks like a smirk forms on his lips for just a moment but it quickly disappears and I'm not even sure it really happened "I didn't need to go, I needed to be here."

I just nod once and smile back at him. Our eyes stay locked for a moment but he quickly looks away causing me to as well.

"Were are they keeping Flax?" I ask him eventually. I've been wondering since I woke up and just needed to find out.

He snarls under his breath at the mention of him "better you not know" he replies.

"Oh, come on Daryl. I'm not gonna hurt him!" I defend myself. Although I want him dead, I don't think I could be the one to pull the trigger anyway.

"just don't worry about it" he returns with frustration.

"just tell me, I need to know" I plead further with him.

He sighs before spitting back "I can't tell yew, alright!?" His eyes flash to me with darkness "They won't tell me either." He stands up and paces the floor.

"What?" I say dumbfounded. He doesn't answer right away "why not?" I add on.

"Cause what he did, what he wanted to do! Everything they've ever thought of doing to you" He lashes out pacing the floor even faster. His face turns a color red I haven't seen yet.

"You stopped it all Daryl, don't let it get to you" I try and say something to calm him down.

"Are you kiddin? Look at you! What he was about to do!" He can't even say the words and I don't add anything this time. "And the son'of'a'bitch had the nerve to flaunt this in my face!" Daryl takes something out of his back pocket and flings it towards me. It lands near my knees from the force of his throw and I know what it is. It's the Polaroid that Flax was carrying of me from when they held me prisoner. "should've killed im' when I had the chance" he adds before I reach it. "Friggen' china man" he mutters under his breath, pissed Glenn didn't let him finish him.

I quickly grab the photo in embarrassment and try to rip it in half. The material is too hard and it stays intact. "Ughhhhh!" I grumble and do my best to crumble it up and throw it towards the garbage pail that sits in the room. "Why can't those just disappear!?" I sink into the bed and cover my face with the blanket and let my face burn with embarrassment. I feel the bed sink by my feet when he sits down. He doesn't say anything and after a few moments I lower the blanket so only my eyes are visible. His eyes are trained on his hands that are resting in his lap. His breath remains evenly paced now and I keep the blanket where it's at while I stare at him "Daryl, help me get them back" I whisper threw the blanket.

"Huh?" His chin turns towards me with his eyes finding mine again. They are open wide with curiosity.

"Help me get rid of them. All of them." I say again this time lowering the blanket below my chin.

"Of course" he says without blinking. His hand finds mine and he rests it on top. It's warm against my cold fingers and I instinctively wrap my fingers through his.

He stiffens a little bit and I realize I made him uncomfortable. I go to remove them and say "sorry" but he keeps them intermingled.

"S'fine" he returns looking down. I notice his shoulders lowering now as he relaxes again. We don't say anything more as there is nothing more to say. I let myself drift away as my fingers stay laced with his.


	21. Nightmares

"Daryl!" I yell out loudly. I'm standing on the edge of a cliff with walkers closing in. I don't know what to do and I'm afraid I've come to the end. I reach around my waist for my gun but it's not there. I go for the knife but it's gone as well. I start to panic that the only way to escape is to end it by jumping. The ground beneath me begins to crumble as I inch back as far as I can. The first walker gets close to me and I go to push it away but I get caught off guard when it's Flax. He goes to naw at my face but I can only move to the right and let him plummet to his death. Behind him 2 others get close and I recognize them as Lara and David from the camp that burned down. They lean forward to attack and I side step again just in time for them to fall to their death as well. As the others get closer, more familiar faces fall to their final death below as I dodge them. Only the dead faces soon turn into live ones but they keep falling to their death, even as I reach for them. Maggie walks next to me looking like her self with the eyes of a dead one and I shout her name "Maggie! Wake up!" I grab a hold of her arm but she continues to zombie walk forward. "STOP!" I shout out doing everything I can to hold her back from falling. Eventually though, I have to let go and she plummets down. After her Glenn, Carol, Michonne all walk past me to their deaths. I try to stop them all but I am just not strong enough. The walkers have come to an end and I lift my head up and turn away from the dark pit everyone I ever knew lies.

"You did this to them" his voice says to me. I squint my eyes to see where he stands and the silhouette of an armed man gets closer. I know it's Daryl and I run forward towards him.

"Daryl, they are all dead. Everyone. They all just jumped!" I cry into his shoulder once I reach him. He doesn't respond or lift his arms to hug me in return. When I realize this I pull away and look into his green eyes. They are just as dazed as the others "Daryl, no" I whisper to him "not you too!" I try and shake him from whatever trance he is in.

"You're the reason they are all dead. This is all your fault." He says before brushing past me to get closer to the edge.

"Please don't do this. No! I didn't mean to!" I shout after him and follow behind. I use all my strength to pull him back but it doesn't make any difference.

He shakes his arm to try and get away from the grab but I cling to it desperately "don't leave me!" I beg him with more tears falling from my eyes. He gives one more strong tug and I fall to the ground hard. When I look up to grab a hold of him again he takes a step forward to the edge "Daryl!" I shout out waking myself up.

I'm sitting up in a cold sweat. Daryl is still on the bed next to me and he's looking just a little bit confused "everything alright?" I nod in his direction but tears keep going down my face. "What is it?" He asks with a head tilt.

"I'm going to get everyone killed" I whisper out my fear.

"Not this again" He rolls his eyes and walks away from the bed. He goes over to the window and peers outside. I'm taken a back by his response and just let him walk away. Something outside must have caught his eye because he huffs out of the room quickly. I want to follow where he is going but I know I wouldn't be able to keep up. I hear the front door slam and I try and quickly make my way to the window where he just was. Just as I reach the window I see him storming up to Carol, Abraham, Sasha and Flax whose resting on two of them. I can't see what he is saying but I can tell he is livid.

Carol pushes him forward a little bit and the other two begin to move again with Flax. Daryl motions towards them and keeps his posture tense. Carol rests her hand on his chest while saying something back to him. He keeps yelling things past her and at her but she keeps a calm composure. He eventually turns around and storms back towards the house. I make my way back to the bed right before he gets back into the room "what was that about?" I ask him when the door shuts.

"nothin" he says slouching back in the chair.

"Where were they taking him?" I ask giving up the unknowing act.

He gives me a dirty look annoyed I even asked if I knew and reluctantly tells me "to get some meds. Guess he's got a bad infection and gettin worse."

"Oh, okay" I say back not really knowing what to say. Daryl and I don't speak again the rest of the day.

Later, Maggie comes into the room with some food "here you go" she says with a smile. She places it down on the bedside table and goes to leave.

"Maggie, wait!" I call before she can leave the room. Daryl still sits in the room quietly keeping his eyes trained on the knife he's spinning under his thumbnail. She turns around stopping her feet and waits for me to speak.

"When can I get cleaned up? These stitches are starting to kill me!" I say trying to avoid scratching them.

She gives me a sorry expression "they have to stay dry for another 2 days. Sorry Shannon." she shrugs then retreats out the door.

Although I want to be annoyed I remind myself I'm lucky enough to be in a place with any kind of water and decide to give myself a sponge bath "Daryl.." I say leaning up and out of the bed. He looks to me expressionless. "I'm gonna clean myself up. Can you help me to the bathroom please?" I ask him not waiting for an answer. I stand up and he gets up quickly to help me to the other room. As we walk into the hallway. He helps me into the bathroom and stands there when I adjust myself in front of the mirror. I wait for him to leave but he just stares at me. "Uhhh.. I'm okay now. Thanks." I say lowly trying not to make it awkward.

"righht.. well uhh.." he mumbles stepping backwards "holler if yew need anything" and he's out the door.

I turn the bathroom tub on and let it get hot before I clog the drain. I know it'll take a while to rinse my matted hair so I want the water to stay as warm as possible for as long as possible. When it's filled half way I start with rubbing my arms with the loofa. It feels so nice against my rugged skin and I scrub harder and harder at the dirt. I don't know how long it takes but I scrub until I'm raw, making sure any trace of Flax is gone. I move myself onto my knee' and as close to the tub as possible. I dunk my head into the tub and rub my hands through it. I let the water drain into the drain and turn the tub back on while I rinse it with soap. A few minutes later I feel clean enough and let my hair drip onto the floor. I wrap myself in a towel and try and hoist myself up from the floor using the counter. I go to leave the bathroom when my foot slips from the wet floor. I try and get a hold of something to keep my footing but it doesn't help. My head hits the marble and I fall flat on my ass.

The room spins as the door opens but I know it's Daryl "are you serious??" He grunts when he see's me.

"I slipped" I say back grabbing at my head. He comes over to where I'm lying on the floor and scoops me into his arms. I try and reach the towel to my head but it's covering my body so the blood pours out from the cut. He puts me down on the bed and pushes his forearm to my head.

"can't you do anythin' without hurtin yourself" he mumbles under his breath.

I look up to him angry at his comment and go to push him away "if I'm such a pain in the ass then why didn't you let me leave" I say putting my hand to my head now to try and stop the bleeding. I expect him to come back at me with another snarky comment but instead he just stands up and leaves the room. I stay perched on the bed in my towel with my hand covered in blood when Maggie walks in the room a few minutes later with a medical kit and sad eyes.


	22. Sharing

After Maggie leaves, Daryl walks back in with an attitude. He stands at the edge of the bed and waits for me to make eye contact. "I'm goin' on a run" he says lowly.

"Ok.." I trail off not sure why he was telling me this. I am glad he did tell me, but he is still standing there like he's waiting for me to say something back. "What for?" I ask trying to fill up the dead space in the room.

He rubs his hand across his neck "supplies, there's a town couple hundred miles south of here we haven't hit yet.." he trails off avoiding further eye contact.

I can tell by the way he's talking to me something is off but I just don't know what. "So you'll be gone a few days?" I ask. I didn't notice until afterwards how disappointed I sounded. I hope he didn't catch on to it. He nods back to my question. I puff out some air "well, be careful, okay?" I ask of him. He nods again and walks towards the door.

"Hey, Shannon?" He stops before leaving. I look over to him and wait for him to say whatever it is he was going to say "try n' stay outta trouble when I'm gone." He smirks before throwing a handkerchief over to me. I reach my hand out forward to try and catch it but it falls to the ground before I do. When I lift my head up from retreating the cloth he's already gone. I stay seated on the bed smiling. What an ass. I think to myself putting the handkerchief in my robe pocket.

The next 4 days I was told to stay in the house. The last time I was stuck inside I got cabin fever, but this time was different. I knew that if I was out and around I'd risk running into Clint. The idea of that made me sick to my stomach. I can't do that alone, I can't do that without someone by my side. I needed Daryl there. While I was confined in the house I got to know some of the people I was living with a little bit more. Carol had a husband and daughter that she lost to walkers along the way. I was shocked to find that out because behind closed doors she's so tough. I've noticed her faking a soft exterior around the others but I never would have thought it came from experience. Michonne also had a child. Of course, she wasn't the one to tell me this, Carl was. Carl told me a lot about everyone. He was hanging around when I would watch Judith so the others could get some work done. It was my idea since I'm useless otherwise with my injured leg. Carl seemed like a lonely boy who doesn't really know where his place in the world is yet. His entire childhood was ripped away from him. He asked me a lot about my childhood and I told him about it honestly. After learning more about why he had to kill his own mother, I didn't feel the need to shelter him from anything else. I knew nothing could be worse for him then that.

"How was life before the break out?" I asked him one afternoon. He just shrugged while sitting back on the palms of his hands on the floor of the bedroom. He never really wanted to talk about things that happened before the world ended, at least in his life.

"How old are you Carl?" I ask him.

"15" He responds.

"You learnin' how to drive?" I smirk to him.

He perks up a little "not really. Dad won't let me out much and when we do it's just to kill any walkers around the perimeter." He explains "can't waste any gas" he adds on.

"Dad's got a point" I remind him and he slumps back down on the floor.

I didn't mean to disappoint him so I decide to tell him a story "Yanno, when I was 16 I stole my neighbors motorcycle" I smile towards him.

"Really?" He asks interested.

"Ya. My parents refused to get me a car. It's not like we didn't have the money or anything they were just assholes." I say before remembering Judith was in the room. I look over to the little girl who is playing happily with some old wooden bowls and spoons. When I look back to Carl he's still waiting for me to continue the story. "So one afternoon I got detention. I walk home and the first thing that happens to me when I get through the door is a push against the wall. My father gets all up in my face about the principal calling him and interrupting an important work meeting or something. My father was so pissed though that my head banged into the wall hard enough to put a hole into it."

"What'd you do?" He asks.

"Well he kept yelling at me and squeezing my arms tighter and tighter. I was dizzy from hitting my head so I kind of just took whatever he was dishing out. I usually did anyway. While he continued to scream at me though, I saw my mother walk by us without turning her head. I didn't even realize it until that night but she didn't even care to look my way. In the past she would try and give me sympathizing looks, like she was telling me it's okay and it will all be over soon, but not this time. I grew so outraged that I decided to leave. I didn't know where I was going to go or how I was going to get there but I needed to get out."

"So, you ran away?" He asks now.

"Hold on." I smile at him "So I waited until after midnight to leave. I was going to take my moms car but then they would know I was gone. I didn't want them to find out until later that evening when I didn't come home from school. Anyway, I left and when I got outside I noticed our neighbors motorcycle sitting in their driveway. Well, I learned a thing or two the times I skipped school and hot wired one. I somehow managed to get the bike out of the driveway and on the road" I smile towards him laughing at the memory. I was so weak and frail then that it was a miracle just being able to lift it up.

"And?" He asks engaged in the story "did you ever go back?" He asks. Carl knew the past of my abusive father but I guess he didn't know how long it really lasted for. I shake my head yes to his question and his face falls flat "why?" He asks next.

"I damaged the motorcycle 4 blocks away. I fell off it and scraped myself up pretty seriously. I didn't know what else to do so I made it home and told my parents everything." I tell him a lie. Although I did get injured on the bike, it wasn't from a fall. I can tell he's disappointed by the ending to my story by the silence that follows.

A few minutes later we hear the front door open and Rick hollers out to his son. Carl gets up and grabs Judith "thanks for hanging out" he says to me before leaving the room.

"Ya, you too!" I shout back to him.


	23. Friendly Banter

Denise comes up to the room the next morning. She starts to remove the stitches from my leg and tells me about Flax. He was moved to another space to help him recover from his wound. He's heavily sedated to deal with the pain, although I know it's at Rick's order to keep him from talking . I tried not to hear what she was saying, I didn't want to think about Flax. I didn't want to think about any of them. There isn't too much pain when she removes the stitches and she's happy with how well the wound healed. She moves the conversation to what it's like being the "doctor" in town now. I do my best to listen and stay engaged but my mind keeps wandering back to Daryl. "Uhh, Shannon?" Denise calls to me.

"Oh. What? Sorry." I say being pulled from the daze.

"Worried about Daryl?" She asks putting her tools away into a bag and removing the gloves she wore.

"That obvious?" I ask biting my lower lip. If Denise can figure it out then surely everyone else can too, maybe everyone except him.

She smiles "I'm sure he's alright. With what everyone is telling me happened in the woods the other day.." She looks away for a moment saying that "he's probably out looking for monsters to kill to get out his anger." She says.

"He shouldn't be doing that alone" I tell her though.

She shrugs "I don't think he's alone. But if he was he'd be fine. Daryl's a lone wolf like that." She returns. She must notice my reaction and adds on "until you came around" she says. I give her a look to call out her lie but she only defends her words "I mean it. He was the one always wanting to go out and find people to bring back, even when Rick didn't want anyone else comin' in. He always held out hope he'd find the good ones. He must have really found one in you because he hasn't gone back out with Aaron since you've been here" she tells me.

"Really?" I ask "he goes out looking for people to bring here?" I question

"Yup." She says now moving to the door "you know, you should tell him how you feel. I think it'd help open up his shell a little bit.." she goes to leave "yours too." She adds on.

Before I have a chance to respond to her though she leaves the room. I mull over what she says to me in a shower. It feels so good to stand in a shower again. I rinse my hair and go back into the room to get dressed. I know I've been fine with being cooped up lately but now that my leg is healed I feel the need to get out. I need to move! With Daryl gone, I decide to just leave the compound for the day. I know I should clear it with Rick, but he's busy. I'll just head out to the main gate and tell whoever is there that I'm doing a deeper perimeter check than usual. I walk downstairs and a few people look at me. No one says anything when I go to leave the house. I walk down the front steps quickly and make my way to the main entrance keeping my head down just in case. Most people were busy with something else so I was lucky. When I reach the gate Spencer looks down from his post "Can I help you?" He asks when I'm still a few steps away.

"open the gate, would ya?" I holler back up to him.

He looks at me strangely "why you wanna go out there?" He questions.

I throw my hand up to cover my eyes from the glare the sun is casting "I'm gonna' go do a perimeter check." I tell him. It's not a total lie, when I'm out there if I do see any biters, I'll take them out. It's a two birds one stone kind of thing.

He begins to make his way to the bottom of the tower and I stand with my hand on my hip and the other still blocking the sun while I watch. He comes and stands across from me "why would ya go and do something like that for?" He asks me.

"Been cooped up for like a week, I need to get out." I tell him honestly.

He turns his head to the side and purses his lips "Rick know you going out there?" His eyes and head do a quick jolt towards the gate before eyeing me for my answer.

"I didn't clear it with him, I can take care of myself" I say back to him.

"You shouldn't go out there by yourself" he tells me.

I chuckle "again, I can take care of myself" I repeat with annoyance.

He takes a step closer "Hold on, let me get someone to cover my post and I'll go with you." He insists starting to walk past me towards the town.

"You don't have to do that! I'll be just fine!" I call to him

"I insist. Besides, with Daryl gone someone needs to cover your ass" he smiles while jogging backwards to speak to me. He turns back around and continues his pace. I snarl at his comment but know he couldn't hear it. I make the decision to wait for him. I thought I wanted to be alone but maybe having someone with me would be a safer idea.

A few minutes pass before I see him jogging back over to me "alright, Tara's on her way to cover for me. I'll owe her one." He says as he reaches me.

"Tara? She'll tell Rick as soon as were gone that we left" I roll my eyes. Tara has been on edge around me since we went on the gun run together, I don't have any doubt that she would do that just to put a rift between Rick and I.

"It's good, he was talking with my mom and I let him know I was going on a perimeter check. I told him you were coming along." He said moving towards the gate now. From a short distance away I see Tara walking forward with a gun slung around her shoulder. "You coming?" He asks now standing next to it. I nod to him and walk over and stand next to him. Tara makes her way over to us and opens the gate without making eye contact with me.

"You got 5 hours" she says in a flat tone before shutting the gate.

We begin our walk on the dirt path before I move off the road a few feet down and into the woods "where you going?" He asks nervously.

"Into the woods, perimeter means the entire perimeter, not just the dirt road. Walkers won't just drive up to the gate" I return. He nods and follows me forward. "So Rick was okay with me coming out here?" I ask after a few minutes of walking. I know he's accepted me into the group but I didn't think he'd be okay with just anybody going outside the walls. That's why Daryl always took the hidden way.

"Ya, said somethin' bout you getting back out there and ready to do runs again. Thought I had a good idea." He smiles now keeping pace with my walk.

"Your idea?" I coif.

He laughs back "I aint' on Rick's best side so I'd figure I'd let him think it was my idea." He explains.

"Stop." I say holding up my hand. He takes a step further then I do before freezing. "you here that?" I ask him in a whisper trying to listen.

The leaves brush softly against one another in the light wind. A bird caws from somewhere far away but the sound of grumbling I heard is non existent. "here what?" He asks back.

"nothing" I say slowly before moving again, this time I keep my pace slow and and watch where I'm walking. It's one thing being out here alone and on guard but keeping up the conversation like this could be dangerous.

"anyway.." Spencer tries and to push the conversation forward. I give him a warning look and he understands what I was trying to get across and leaves it at that. We keep walking around the perimeter of the town all the while walking further away from it. I occasionally mark a tree trunk with an x through it in case we need to find our way back. I know the way I'm going and how to get back, but you never know what you're going to run into to get you off course. I've learned from experience. After 2 hours of walking and 7 biters down I decide to stop and take a break. My leg is a little sore from walking this much after being off of it for a few days and injured from the arrow. I sit under a dying tree and pull out a water from my pack. I pass the bottle over to Spencer who drinks half of it before offering it back. I shake my head against it knowing I have another my bag and he finishes it off.

"What if we got lost out here?" I ask him raising an eyebrow.

"What?" He asks back wiping off his mouth.

"You just chugged 1 of the 2 bottles of water we have." I return "if we got lost we'd need that to hold us over as long as possible."

"Didn't really think of that" he says tossing the bottle on the ground. I roll my eyes at his stupidity and stand to retrieve the trash.

I put the bottle back in my pack while speaking "you ever even been out of Alexandria longer than a few hours?" I ask him.

"Sure, I've done a run or two" he shrugs back.

"But always with a group? Always with a car?" I ask. He nods yes to my questions. "You don't waste things like water bottles, and you don't leave obvious signs of human life around this close to your home." I tell him firmly.

"So it's as bad as Rick says then, huh?" He returns back to me.

"Worse" I say through gritted teeth thinking about all the horrible people I've come across. He nods his head in understanding and we begin to walk back.


	24. Group Meeting

When we get back to Alexandria, Tara lets us in. She doesn't say a word to either of us as we thank her and just heads off towards the town. Spencer turns to me when we reach the post "well, gotta take the rest of the night shift.." he says as he begins his climb up to take watch.

"Hey, wait!" I call back to him. He turns his head but keeps his position on the first step. His eyes meet mine and he waits for whatever it was I called to him for "thanks for coming with me." I smile back "I was really annoyed at first but it was a good time." I tell him.

When I finish speaking he takes his foot back off the step and comes back over to where he was before "well, I'm glad I was good company" he says. When he's done he leans in closer and whispers to my ear "yanno, I might not be a good hunter, but I am a good time." he leans back out and winks at me before retreating back to the ladder to take his post. I stare at him oddly trying to figure out what he meant by that. I walk back to the house slowly, enjoying the breeze of the setting sun.

"Daryl back yet?" I ask Carol when I get into the kitchen where she is cooking.

She shakes her head with a sorry smile "your leg must be doing better" She says with a lingering smirk before leaving the room.

I puff out some air with frustration and go back upstairs. I decide to sleep in the room one more night before bringing my things back down and sleeping with everyone else in the living room. I pick up the book I've started to read and open up to chapter 7. It's the story of a man once powerful and envied who falls from power only to be enslaved by his own brother. It's not something I would have normally chosen to read but it was the only book in the room when I was injured. Daryl must have been reading it when I was unconscious to pass the time and left it behind.

I jolt upwards frightened and my head turns to the door, in the frame of the door is Maggie "you were screaming." she says apologetically.

"I'm sorry. I guess my night terrors are back" I reply telling her. She smiles sympathetically back to me and goes to leave. She stops though and I wait for what she wants to say.

"Yanno, you're screaming out for someone." she hesitates telling me this.

"I am?" I ask. I've been told I'm usually screaming at someone, for someone to get away from me. "who?" I ask wanting to know.

"You're screaming for Daryl" She returns softly.

"Oh" I say embarrassed at the realization.

She stays in her spot shifting her weight onto the other foot debating on saying more. "It's weird" she says coming into the room now and sitting on the end of the bed, her eyes tired with keeping something in. I tilt my head and squint at her waiting for her to elaborate. "Daryl hasn't left your side since he brought you back injured. No matter what was going on, he was right here." she says while nodding in the direction of the chair "and then he just goes off on a random run once you start getting better" she notes with a shake of the head.

"Random?" I ask. He told me they needed some supplies, that's not random.

She nods back to me while reading my confused expression "some others just got back from a run the day before he left. We weren't planning to go on another for another week or so" she tells me.

"That is weird" I say back unsure of what else to say at the information she just told me. Why would he tell me he needed to go on a run when others just went? Maybe he wanted to get away from me, maybe I've become a burden to him. "Thanks for waking me" I thank her, changing the subject. "Wish I could control it, yanno." I say about the night terrors.

"It's not a problem" She smirks "I had a few of my own once Glenn & I got real serious" she tells me. I look at her with a tilt to my head "not that you and Daryl are serious, just meant when I was worried about him, that's all." she says, her country accent coming out more as she spoke fast with nervousness.

"Ya, guess I am worried about him." I say back. "A little" I add on trying to convince myself that's all. She smiles back to me and leaves the room, shutting the door gently behind her.

I stay sitting in the bed thinking to myself. Maggie has been such a good friend since I've arrived. One of the better people I've met since the world came to an end. She deserves to know who is living in her community. They all deserve to know who's living here. As much as I want my secrets to stay buried, I know it needs to come out in order for them to understand the real danger that is behind these walls. I decide to take action the next day and tell everyone in the home what secret Daryl, Rick & I have been keeping.

When I go downstairs in the early morning, about half of their the group is there. I know most of the one's gone are out on some kind of job duty. I look around to find Michonne, knowing she can get a hold of Rick. She's pushed in a corner, huddled together with Glenn and Sasha, talking in hushed tones and whispers.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" I ask when I go over to them. Michonne gives a nod to the two and they walk away. When I feel they have moved far enough I confide to her "something happened out in the woods the other night" I say first letting her know what it's about.

"figured as much" she says flatly with a stare.

I nod "well, there's more to it than just what went down that night. A lot more." I confess.

"Like what? Does Rick know about this?" She says a little concerned.

I nod my head again "he does" I also say "but I feel like I shouldn't be keeping it a secret from everyone anymore. It's too dangerous and too much has already happened" I stop there, not sure how much more I want to say.

Her posture changes from relaxed to tense as she stands up straight "well, go on" she says urging me to tell her more.

I bite my lower lip "I'd rather say it to everyone all together, it's not something I like to talk about often" I say. She nods slowly weighing her options and holds up a finger to me.

She moves over her shoulder to her radio "Rick, I have Shannon here and she wants to have a meeting with the group" she says.

I stand awkwardly as we wait for his voice to crackle in return. A minute passes before something comes through "tonight right before duty switch. I'll have Deanna's son take watch." He agrees to my request.

"copy" Michonne says back and looks at me again "the floor is yours at 5" she tells me before moving past me and further into the house.

5 o'clock comes and I stand in front of the group that has taken me in. Some of them are now giving me looks of resentment as their bow wielding friend has left without warning and they are blaming me. I don't hold it against them though, I also am blaming myself. Rick stands next to me and Carol is the last one to come into the room. She holds Judith close to her and stands in the corner of the room giving me the worst look of them all. "Shannon has something she wants to tell everyone." He goes to move but stops and directs his attention forward again "and be understanding as to why she wanted to keep it a secret." he adds before leaving the space I'm standing in. Some of them roll their eyes or grumble to their neighbor. I take a deep breath and begin to tell my story to them.

When I get to the part about Clint being here and lying Tara stands from where she is sitting with fists made "this asshole has been here the whole time and you kept it to yourself!" She spits at me.

"Tara, calm down." Glenn tries to defuse her.

She shoots him a nasty glare but ignores him. "He could be here for any one now and you just let him walk the streets safely, let him have a bed to stay in and a place to call home!" her voices raises high.

"Tara. Sit down!" Rick steps up in front of her before she can do something stupid. She stares past him and at me but doesn't sit back down. Instead she storms out of the room and into the street, making sure to snub my shoulder as she passed by.

"I'll go get her" Eugene stands up and goes to leave.

Rick puts his hand on his chest as moved towards the door "let her go, she needs to let off some steam" he tells him. Eugene nods to him accepting the decision and sits back down on the couch. Rick nods at me to continue and I do. I explain next what happened in the woods the other day with Daryl, Glenn and Flax and what he stopped from happening. Afterwards, everyone sits quietly soaking in the story I have told. "So, I get it if your mad at me or want me to leave, I just needed to tell everyone what's been going on before I do." I openly speak.

"You're not leaving" Maggie says from somewhere in the room. It takes me a moment to find her sitting on the floor next to the couch Indian style.

"It's okay Maggie" I smile to her "Daryl's the one to convince you guys to let me stay. I know that.""

"So?" She asks now standing and putting her hand on her hip "he may have convinced some of us to let you stay but that doesn't mean he's the only one who wants you to stay now. You're part of this town now. You're not going anywhere" she argues for me to stay.

"That's nice but I haven't really done much to have earned a place here." I return back, saying what I think most are feeling.

"Shannon you helped bring all those weapons here. We have an artillery base now because of your run with Daryl and Tara. That's enough for me" Glenn defends his wife. They hold hands as they stand together.

Abraham speaks next "I don't know. One run with two of our own isn't saying too much of your capabilities, you've seem to be injured quite a bit too" he mentions.

"Shannon is staying and that's final. We don't abandon one of our own and we don't let them abandon us." Rick now speaks to the entirety of the room. He then turns to me "I appreciate you wanting to tell everyone, I know how hard it was for you. We'll take care of what's going on with Clint and his men and we will move past all of this. You will move past all of this." He tells me now putting a hand on my shoulder for assurance. His eyes tell me he believes what he is saying is true and I try and take comfort in them.

"Thank you," I say back to him. "And again, no excuses, I'm sorry." I say back to everyone.

"It's not an excuse. It took balls to tell us all to our faces what happened." Glenn says back. I look to him and Maggie and smile to them. Besides Daryl, they have been the most supportive to me since I've arrived. I'm glad we're becoming friends.

"Thank you" I whisper back to him. He nods once and leaves the room making it clear any further discussion is over. I stay standing where I spoke and let them trickle out around me. I'm finally the only one left in the room.


	25. Threatened

The rest of the night and into the next day I am met with awkward stares and fake conversations. It's obvious who wants to talk about what happened to me and who just doesn't know what to say to me now that they know. After a few hours trying to deal with it I decide I need to get away from the home. I know the risk of running into Clint, but I don't care anymore. I put on a sweatshirt and walk into the sunlight. I make my way around town keeping my head down. After walking a few blocks, it's then I realize that I really don't know anybody outside of the house I've been staying in. I watch as kids run the streets, teenagers sulk against a house and men and woman keep busy on the road. I can't put names to faces and I regret not getting to know any of them. I decide to change that right then and make my way to the guard tower. I may not know everyone but I know someone. "What you doing over here? Trying to leave again?" Spencer calls out to me when I've gotten a bit closer.

"Aren't you suppose to be watching outside the fence?" I mock him from the ground. He throws his head back with laughter and begins his trek down the steps.

"What's up Shann?" He says when both feet hit the ground. He puts the rifle over his shoulder and waits for me to respond with a smile on his face.

"Just wonderin' if I could help at all? I'm starting to feel useless!" I say to him.

He rubs his hand against his chin like he's thinking but quickly snaps his fingers like he already had something in mind and was just messing with me "wanna keep watch?" He asks raising his eyebrows.

I eye him curiously "isn't that something only a few of you are suppose to do. I don't think Rick or your mom would be okay with me taking over for you." I respond.

He chuckles "I wouldn't let you keep watch alone. I'm not an idiot." he teases. "Come on." He says leaving me behind and heading back towards the tower. I follow him reluctantly and climb up slowly behind him. He offers me help over the lip of the tower and I take his hand. "Good view, huh?" He asks once I've had a moment to get adjusted and look around.

"You can see everything!" I exclaim. I've never had this view of town before. Below me are people safely tucked away in the town of Alexandria. I've talked with Daryl before about how sheltered their lives have been. I've experienced a little of it with Spencer the other day when he went out of the gates with me. On the other side of the fence lies wilderness. A hue of greens and browns lie ahead of me and I smile taking in the beauty. Only a moment passes before something catches my eye from afar and the dead lifeless being creeps towards the walls. Even from a distance, I can tell it's dead and waiting to gnaw at it's next meal.

Spencer must notice my change in attitude and finds what I was looking at "I'll get it." He says. He lifts up the rifle and takes it out with two shots. The bullet is muffled with a silencer and it falls to the ground when the second bullet hits it in the head.

"Not that bad" I say to him.

"What do you mean, not that bad?" He asks shocked "that was one hell of a shot. Look how far out that thing is?!" He fights me softheartedly.

"Please" I throw my hand towards him. "Watch and learn." I say asking for the rifle. He is hesitant to give it to me, looking at me curiously with a raised eyebrow. I stand there with my hands flat out and eyes open wide. I don't move from my position and he knows I'm serious. He unravels the rifle from his shoulder and I put my arm through the band. I lift it up to my eye and wait patiently for the next dead body to wander into the scope. A few minutes pass before I see one and I let my breathing slow down. I've shot a rifle a couple of times in the past and know I can get it with one shot. Just as I go to pull the trigger I'm caught off guard by the sound of something large coming towards the town. Spencer and I both turn our heads to the main entry road and find a huge 18 wheeler barreling towards the gate. Before we have any time to move, the truck rams into the wall and we are tumbling down to the ground with debris flying alongside with us.

The sound of the trucks horn brings me too and I blink my eyes quickly. "Did that really just happen?" I ask myself unsure if I'm dreaming or not. I try and lift my body but I am pinned against a piece of wood. "Damn it!" I shout out.

"Shannon! You alright?" I hear someone call to me.

"I'm stuck under some wood!" I call back "Where are you?" I try and yell back over the horn. My right arm breaks free and I move it to my head. I feel the blood coming from it and push against it hard to try and stop the bleeding. I expect to hear Spencer call back to me but instead I hear the piercing scream of a woman. I jolt upwards with understanding and fear and my other hand breaks free from captivity. As I try and force the wooden plank off of me the screams get louder and more are beginning to make it into the air. It's not just woman's screams anymore, I hear the cries of men begging for their lives as well.

Although it's only been a few minutes, it feels like hours before I get myself free. I stand up quickly and wait as my head spins from the movement. The horn continues to go off and I know I need to stop it before it draws more and more of the dead this way. "SPENCER?" I call out to him. We we're just next to each other minutes ago, he can't be too far, I tell myself. I stumble through the debris towards the large truck and find Spencer standing at the driver side door with it opened. "what are you doing!?" I call to him as I make my way towards it.

Inside is a man with a gunshot wound to the chest. His head lies against the horn, keeping it continually going. It appears as if he hasn't turned yet. A gun shot goes off from inside Alexandria and I'm relived that someone is fighting back. Spencer must have been jolted back to reality and he slams himself forward towards the truck. He pulls the dead man out of the driver seat and slides a knife into his head. The horn stops from going off and the body falls at his feet.

He turns to me with despair in his eyes "what now?" He asks.

My entire body is telling me to run. It's telling me to leave, this is what happened last time, this place is over. I look into the woods for my escape but something in my gut stops me. I turn back to face him and step closer. "We need to save them!" I say to him forcefully.

"Listen to them, it's a massacre in there!" He returns. "We should go! We can get out of here!" He tries to take my hand and run.

"No." I say back. He goes to pull his hand away but I keep it there "listen to me!" I demand to him quickly "I know you want to run away. I've been there before! But we can't, they need us! Everyone in there" I point to the town "needs us!" I finish letting go of his hand.

"I don't know if I can!" He says back honestly.

I nod my head in understanding. He was sheltered from the real world for a long time now. Even on the runs he has been, he hasn't seen something this dark before. I find the rifle on the ground and pick it up. I thrust it forward into his arms "stay here and make sure no one comes in that shouldn't or no one comes out that shouldn't!" I say. I wait for him to nod to me that he understands and after a moment he does. I go to run back inside the town towards the screams but pause briefly "shoot first, ask questions later!" I call back to him.


	26. Attacked

After running through the debris I make it into the inside of the field. The truck left an opening for me to climb over and the site is horrifying. The streets are lined with crimson liquid as the people of Alexandria lay dead on the ground. I scan quickly looking for anyone to help. I find a man begging for his life on his knee's but someone in ragged old clothes covered in dirt, grime, and blood raises an ax to the air and slams it down hard into his shoulder. The scream pierces my body as if it's in my ear and he falls to the ground in excruciating pain. I run forward, gripping my knife tightly but by the time I reach him the ax already hit him in the head and he's dead. As the murderer tries to pull his knife from the man's skull I jump on top of his back and stab him in the chest. He retracts in shock and we fall to the ground. His body lay on top of me, pinning me down but he moves quickly trying to remove the knife from his body.

"Bitch!" I hear him yell out loud. I grab the other knife from my pocket and slice it down his leg, tearing skin as it slides down. He screams in agony, but it doesn't compare to the scream he made the man lying next to me emit. He swings around to attack me but I'm still on the ground and he misses. As his body passes me I take the moment to push at his legs and he falls to the ground. I reach forward for the ax, wanting to get something bigger to defend myself with but he reacts quickly this time and pulls my leg when I'm turned. I fall forward into the asphalt and land hard on my hands. I still try and reach for the ax but my body is pulled farther away from it "you'll pay for this, bitch" he mumbles as the rocks scrape into me through my clothes. I kick at his face and I must have used enough force that he let go. I inch away to escape but he's fast and gets a hold of my leg again. This time he expects my escape attempts and keeps his grip stronger. He lifts the knife up that I jabbed into his chest above his head but before he could even swing it down over my heart a shot goes off. The knife falls to the ground next to me and the mans eyes are wide. Through his stained clothes I see blood pooling and he falls to the ground sideways. As I go to stand over him, he passes away. I look up to where the shots came from and see Spencer from a far. The rifle we used earlier is over his shoulder and he is looking over at me. I give him a quick nod and make my way further into town to find more people to help.

I get a few steps in when another gun shot goes off. This one is not the same as the last but I look over to Spencer anyway. His body is turned away from the town but his head is searching for the location too. I quickly continue to scan as I pace ahead and finally see Carol off to the side. She is hovering over a body and putting dirt and blood on her clothes. I try not to stare but her actions are confusing me "Carol?!" I shout out to her.

She looks up and meets my eyes for a moment before returning for one more swipe of dirt. She quickly places a W on her head and then puts that finger to her lips telling me to stay quiet. What she was doing suddenly hits me and I nod in agreement. She's pretending to be one of them to get close enough to kill them. Two more gun shots go off by now and I know the town is reacting. It feels like hours has passed since the attack started but I know it's only been minutes. I decide to do what Carol has done and cover myself in their clothing. I move forward looking for another evil person to steal garments from. As I move silently on the side of a house I hear a woman panting. No words are coming out but I know labored breaths when I hear them. I peak over the side of the house and find her on the ground. She's holding herself in a ball position and I can't tell what's wrong. "What's wrong? Let me help you!" I say to her as I get closer. She looks at me with fear in her brown eyes but doesn't say anything in return. "please, let me help you" I reach my hand out. She goes to tell me something but can't speak and instead lifts her hand up. I notice then that her stomach is sliced open and she's huddled together to keep her insides from coming out. I do everything I can to hide my disgust and fear and lean down next to her "you're going to be okay" I say taking her hand. But when I take her hand she pushes it away quickly. She reaches it past me now, her finger trembling as she points and her face registers more fear then before. I stand up quickly to turn around when the barrel of a gun knocks me in the eye and I fall backwards over the woman I was just trying to help.

I try and get up quickly but my head is spinning again, worse now with additional damage done. I feel a pair of damp large hands wrap around my arms and lift me up into the air and on my feet. I try to stand but I'm still dizzy from the hit that I stumble back down. The man's arms catch me and force me up again. Something cold wraps around my neck and I open my eyes quickly. My hands instinctively go to my neck where a chain holds it there. While I am grasping at it to get it off of me, two chain links are now on my wrists. The chains attached to them fall to the ground and a mans laugh hits me. "Hello, Darling!" A man with wicked yellow teeth and a nasty face scar says to me when my eyes meet his. I don't look at him long and let my gaze fall to the woman in front of me now. Her eyes are opened wide in fear but her breathing is stopped. Her neck is slit open and I can't help but feel responsible for the tragedy of her death.

"Let me go!" I spit at the man who's now forcing me to look at him with his hand wrapped around my chin keeping it forward in his direction.

"Ohh. I love the one's who put up a fight!" He comments back with a snarl. I go to knee him in the groin but he blocks my attack and instead punches me in the face and knees me in the gut, knocking the wind from my lungs. I keel forward to breath but he pulls the chains with him as he moves away from the corner of the yard. "You'll see it our way soon enough." He says forcing me forward behind him. I continue to cough trying to get my breath back. Before we can reach the road towards the exit Morgan is standing in front of us with his stick. I've talked to him once about his views on life and I know he will try and reason with the man.

His eyes bore into the man holding me by chains in a defensive stance "you have something that doesn't belong to you" Morgan's voice is low and serious.

"This old whore?" the man gestures towards me with a hard tug. I fall to the ground on my knees as he tightens the chains.

Morgan tenses up "let her go" He demands.

"You gonna' kill me with that thing?" The man asks with a condescending laugh.

Morgan replies instantly "no one else is going to die" He simply says.

"Everyone dies" the man retorts angrily. He moves his free hand to his waste for his weapon but Morgan quickly defers him with a hit to the hand. Before the man could try again though he is attacked from the side but deflects the attack and knocks the man on the ground. A woman runs towards him but he is able to get her to the ground with minimal effort. The three of them try a few other ways to render Morgan of his weapon but he successfully deflects each one.

"The gun shots are slowing, your people are dying off. Go now before they kill you too!" Morgan says to them. None of them move. "GO!" he demands with a desperate yell. The 2 who joined in to help the man holding me captive look to him for advice. He stands there momentarily thinking of options and lets go of the chains he is holding me with. He raises his hands as if he is surrendering while walking past him. As soon as he's past him they all turn and run towards the exit.

"You're letting them go!?" I scream at him while trying to remove the chains from my wrists. He ignores me there on the ground and walks away. I roll my eyes at his stupidity and continue to try and get the chain off of my wrists and neck.


	27. Chains

"What the hell?" A voice calls over and I look up and see him running towards me.

"There's gotta be a key somewhere!" I call to him with frustration. I've been working at the chains for a few moments now but I can't get them off without a key or something to pick it with. It's not until I speak that out loud that I start to feel the neck chain closing in on me. My breath picks up and I feel myself panicking as if I'll never get out of it.

"Calm down, calm down. Let's get inside and we'll figure it out" Spencer says when he reaches me. I nod to him to accept the idea and he helps me stand. I look over my shoulder before walking away and he follows my gaze "don't, it's bad everywhere" he says in a low voice. I understand what he meant and I try and keep my gaze down as we walk towards the house.

His mother's house is closer to where we are and he leads me up the steps. His mother's eyes are wide with confusion and fear as we walk past her on the front porch. "Is she okay?" I whisper once we are inside.

"I don't know" he says back honestly. He guides me into the living room I was in once before when I first arrived here and I sit down on the couch. "I'll get you a drink and then go look for a key" he tells me before leaving momentarily. He returns with a glass of water and places it in front of me on a coaster he grabbed from the side table. After he leaves I stare at the glass and where it sits and my mind is blown. Even though the world is completely gone to shit, some people still want to use coasters? The laugh that escapes me comes off as crazy and I lift the glass to my lips chugging down every last drop that is inside. When I'm done I throw the glass against the wall with anger. The shattered pieces of the cup lay shining on the ground and I feel a bit of relief wash over me as I compare that to how I feel at this moment. Shattered beyond repair.

"None of the bodies have keys on them. At least that I could find with a quick search. We can wait until later to go through more but everyone wants to put them all outside the town." He says.

"I don't care, I just want it off of me" I say trying to stretch my neck out feeling closed in again. He nods back in return and leaves me quickly to retrieve something from another room.

"Let's try this." He says bringing in two knives. He puts one of the table and props himself next to me. He grabs my wrists and puts them on his lap, picking at one of the locks. It takes about 20 minutes but he finally gets one of my hands free "there!" He says as it clicks and the chain opens slightly. I quickly remove it and spin my wrist a couple of times.

"How's your eye?" He asks me before starting to work on the other wrist. I forgot about the injury until now but the mention of it brings back the pain.

"Well, now that you mentioned it" I say putting my free hand to my eye.

He glances up with a sideways glance "sorry." he says "hold on, i'll get something for it" he stands up quickly and returns shortly after with a bag of peas. "it's not frozen but it's cold. It'll help a little" he says as he passes it over.

"Thanks" I mumble back taking it from him. I hold the bag of peas to my eye as he works to release the other chain from my wrist. This one takes a bit longer but it eventually clicks and releases me. I sigh with relief and place the bag of peas down on the table. "Ok, last one. Where's the lock?" I go to feel around the neck chain for it.

"Here" Spencer says pointing out the lock on the right side of my head. Spencer moves from the table to the couch to pick at the lock. I keep my head still as the knife scratches against the old brass. His knees are pushed into the couch as he faces me to get the best view of the lock from above.

"What the hell?" I hear the saying again from a voice on the other side of the room. Spencer turns his head around quickly and although I try the chain keeps it from getting as far as I attempted. I didn't get a full look but I would recognize that leather vest anywhere.

"Daryl!" I exclaim a little to excitedly. I quickly change the tone of my voice "what are you doing here?" I ask him trying to look in that direction with my eyes.

"Was on our way back and heard gun shots, got here as fast as we could." He says stepping into the room. "Everything okay?" He raises an eyebrow towards Spencer and I.

"You talk with Rick yet?" Spencer asks him. Daryl nods his head once to confirm he had so Spencer continues "Everything's good in here. Just getting these chains off of Shannon." he tells him before going back to work at picking the lock.

I can't see from where I am sitting but I assume Daryl stands there watching as Spencer does his best to free me. "Oh for shits sake, let me" Daryl finally steps in after a few minutes. He grabs the knife from Spencer and basically pushes him out of the way. Clearly annoyed, Spencer moves from where he was kneeling next to me and steps to the side of the couch.

I give him a small smile of gratitude for what he already has done and he returns one back to me. A few moments pass when I hear a click. I breath out a sigh of relief and Daryl's hand releases the embrace of the chains. His hand wraps around my neck gently to help guide it off of me "Thanks" I say to him after it's off and lying on the floor.

Daryl doesn't say anything but instead makes his way toward the front door again. The 3 of us stand there awkwardly before he speaks up "Comin'?" He asks me with a nod towards the door.

"Yea, I'll be right there" I say to him. He catches on to what I was trying to say and leaves the house with a scowl. Spencer is still next to the couch and I take the few steps over to him and give him a hug "thank you!" I say as I squeeze him just a little.

His arms wrap around me in return "didn't really do much, took forever to get you out of those things." He says back.

I release him and look up to his eyes "no, thank you for saving my life." I remind him. He was the one to shoot the man who was about to stab me. He was the one in town during the attack.

"Oh. Right.." He scratches his head humbly "anytime" he finally says back. I give him another smile before leaving the house.


	28. A Problem

I expect to see Daryl outside waiting but when I get there he's already headed towards the house. I want to run and catch up to him but stop myself from doing so. I have so many questions about why he lied about needing to go on a run but I know now is not the time. Something tragic just happened and I need to do whatever I can to help. Daryl reaches the house and goes inside. I pick up the pace of my walk and meet him inside there shortly after. Carol is inside holding Judith while pacing the floor "Where is erbody?" I hear him ask as I get through the door.

"They are trying to fix the wall. With what you told Rick is out there, he's scouting the walls trying to come up with a plan." She tells him in return.

"What's out there?" I speak up from behind. Clearly Carol was shocked to see me and just as quickly looks away from me as she did when she looked towards me.

Daryl turns away from me as well before answering "tell you later. For now, why don't we get your eye checked out." He leans forward towards Carol and gives her a hug "glad you're okay" I hear him whisper to her. I see her smile back to him while returning his hug. "You too, little ass kicker" He says rubbing Judith on the arm with a smirk. The baby coo's in return and he then returns his attention towards me. He walks past me without making any real contact and walks up the stairs.

"My eye is fine Daryl. I'd really like to help them" I say after him, but he ignores it and keeps moving up step by step. "Daryl, really. I'm alright" I say to him, now following him up and into the bedroom. I come into the room and he is standing at the other side of the room staring at the floor "did you hear me?" I ask him angrily. He doesn't answer me and the anger inside of me swells more "Uhm, hello!? Anybody there?" I wave my hand like I'm trying to get his attention.

This works and he looks up from the ground. Something in the way he is looking at me throws me off and the anger I was feeling is displaced momentarily "Daryl?" I question him now. He steps closer to me now and is inches away from my face. His hand touches the edge of my eye and I wince in return. He pulls it away for a moment but returns it softly again and this time I don't jerk away.

"I'm glad yer okay" he says in a whisper to me while holding his hand there. My mind races through different things to say but the shock of his sudden closeness keeps me frozen still. He moves past me then and shuts the door, giving us more privacy.

I turn around to face him again and his head is down, eyes on the floor, and he's biting his finger nails "Daryl" I say his name again, this time a little louder than a whisper. He doesn't move though and I say it again with more determination "Daryl."

"What?" He asks now looking towards me and biting his lower lip. His eyes aren't as soft as they were moments ago and I know whatever moment there was between us is now gone.

I sigh, frustrated and tired after what has happened and decide to not ask him about his run. "How bad is it?" I ask him lowly.

He shakes his head "don't know much" he says with a tick. My head cocks to the side when he says that as he just told Carol that he talked with Rick. How could he not know much? As if he was reading my mind he elaborates further "I only talked to him for a minute. I was searchin' for.." he trails off "searchin' for anyone to help" he says.

"Oh." I return quickly thinking back to what Denise said about him no longer going out to find people with Aaron since I got there. Clearly she was wrong. "well, what was it you told him is out there?" I ask now curious again to what it was Carol mentioned downstairs.

"Can we not talk about that now?" He sighs frustrated. His hands rub against his pants like he's nervous.

"why not?" I question. He's acting stranger than usual and it's starting to bother me. I put my hand on my hip but quickly remove it when the bruise from being kicked is pushed against. I huff out quickly in pain.

"Cause' I thought everyone was dead, I thought you were dead." His voice raises when he responds back to me "These freakin' people come in here and hack away like we're fucking lumber!" He rants on, fire running through him "Ain't right. They deserve to burn in hell."

"They do" Is all I can think to say back.

Except his rage continues and his voice stays louder than mine "I mean look at it out there!" He rushes towards the window and pulls the curtain aside "massacred, like a fucking movie. And where was I? Out schlepping with scum while the place I called home gets attacked."

"Schlepping with scum? What does that mean?" I ask him unsure of what he was referring too. I know he was out on a run, but why would he put it like that?

He stops yelling for a second when I asked him that but he continues on soon after "Who knows how many more are out there, or if more will be coming back!" He goes on.

"Daryl, there's nothing you could have done to have stopped it. They ran a freakin' truck into the wall!" I exclaim remembering the scene clearly

He shakes his head not accepting my words to him "look at you" his right arm is open towards me to remind me of the wounds I bare.

"It's nothing, really" I say trying to hide the discomfort he brought on by looking at me with pity. "It could have been worse." I add on when he doesn't say anything back.

"Exactly, and I wasn't here to protect you." His voice trails off as he looks back at the window.

I know what I need to do next and I swallow down hard before taking a few steps closer to him. "why do you need to protect me?" I ask lowly.

"Who else gon' do it?" He retorts sarcastically.

"Daryl." I sigh. "Can we just take a few minutes and talk?" I try and move towards the chair in the room for him to sit but he interrupts me.

"Talk about what?" His defensive shield returns and I decide to give up. I'm too exhausted to fight through his barriers right now. The things I've seen today, the emotions I've felt, and the pain that's occurring is finally catching up to me and I decide to just ignore whatever it is I'm feeling for him. Things never work out well for me anyway.

"Talk about what I can do to help you guys with what's coming?" I sigh defeated. He thinks for a moment before nodding his head and heading towards the door to leave the room. I walk out behind him, keeping a distance between us as he leads me out of the house towards the wall where the truck hit.

"We need you Dixon!" Rick shouts out towards us as we get closer. His eyes squint for a moment to see who is behind him "could use you too Shannon!" He hollers out before returning his attention to the metal sheet he is about to lift. "1..2..3" he calls to everyone helping and the material is lifted and placed next to a remaining wall.

"Whatever you need!" I say as we approach now. I find a place to stand next to Tara and Rosita as Daryl takes his place next to Rick.

The sun light is limited now and Maggie with a few other Alexandria town people hold flashlights towards the rubble as we continue to take direction from Rick and rebuild our wall.


	29. A New Friend

"Aren't you worried about running into a certain someone?" Tara smugly asks me as we move to another piece of sheet metal.

"Actually, I totally forgot about that" I respond staring off into the town. "I guess if it happens, it happens. There's more important things to worry about right now" I say, truly believing that. Besides, Daryl is back now so the fear of running into Clint isn't as overwhelming as it was previously.

"Pfft. Sure" she responds rolling her eyes.

"We'll help keep an eye out." Rosita says with a small smile "won't we?" She elbows Tara to respond. Tara glances up momentarily to her friend but nods in return.

We work through the night putting together the whole in the wall. Abraham and Eugene drove the truck off site somewhere and are just now getting back. They walk to the front of the town and go straight to Rick and Daryl. I'm not close enough to hear what they are saying but I try and read their lips as they speak in hushed tones. I don't get much but I'm pretty sure I read "shit ton of dead headed this way" from Abraham. Daryl catches me looking over at them and a scowl runs across his tired face. I turn my attention back to what I'm working on and do my best to avoid eye contact with him the rest of the morning. The sun starts to rise high into the sky just as we finish putting the wall back together. It looks just as good as it did before and I'm thankful the truck damaged the look out tower more than than the wall.

I stumble back to the house with everyone else and we all pile into the living room, finding spots on the floor to sleep "why don't you sleep up in your room princess" Tara scrutinizes me as she squats down on the floor.

"Someone else can use it. I'm fine here" I return to her, hoping the others heard me. I've never liked the idea of me staying up there even when I was injured. I figured they would start to resent me for that, and it seems I was right.

I hear a grumble from the other side of the room and Carl sits up "can you guys shut up already.." He mumbles crankily.

I nod to him to assure I would and lay down on the pillow. I close my eyes and fall asleep almost instantly.

"Back off, will ya!" a loud voice brings me too and I sit up quickly. I sit up with enough time to see Daryl storming out of the room. I get up quietly trying to let whomever is still asleep stay resting. I reach the door pretty quickly and turn to see Michonne and Carol huddled together down the hall.

I rush out the door, without shoes into the brisk cold air and run after Daryl "hold up!" I call out to him. He doesn't turn around or slow down and keeps walking quickly down the road. As I follow him I look up to the sky and take note that it's early afternoon still. Although it seems the entire town is asleep.

Daryl turns a corner and I quickly try and catch up to him. When I turn the corner, there isn't any sign of him. I can't tell where he went and I'm left stunned at where he could have gone off too. I take a few steps forward to stand at a small fork in the land. I look for any sign of what way he went but don't find any. I shrug to myself and make my way down the way to the right. I walk slowly, listening for footsteps or sounds giving away his location. I only have to walk a few more moments before voices are being heard. I don't understand what they are saying so I keep moving towards them only slower, so they don't hear me.

Eventually the sounds I'm hearing turn to words and I listen closely "I can't now, not like this. She won't understand." I recognize Daryl's voice.

"Well, this is taking forever and I'm not going to wait for you to break it to her easy" a woman's voice responds to him and I stop my feet. She's speaking in a low tone so I can't tell who it is and my concern grows deeper who is he talking to? Wait to tell me what? The questions flow through my head like a flash flood and I try and push them down when he speaks again.

"Ya, I get it. Few more days, then I'll tell her about us, bout everythin" He says to her.

"Fine. 3 days.." Her voice responds softly. My stomach turns ill when I hear the word us. As soon as I hear the sounds of feet moving I turn around quickly towards the road and I run back towards the house. I don't want to be anywhere near him when he comes back around. As I reach the steps to the house I stop short before my bare foot reaches the the concrete lifting. I cant be here when he gets back, we'll see each other, and I can't see him. I go to walk to the hidden area in the wall to leave the town but stop shortly after. He showed me the broken down shed, he would know to look there if he wanted to find me for whatever reason. I need to go somewhere else, somewhere people won't think to look for me. My feet turn towards the street and I make my way towards another house.

I knock on the door and Deanna answers it disheveled looking. She doesn't greet me but stares at me waiting to see what I'm doing at her door for "Uhm, hi. Is spencer here?" I ask her. She doesn't answer me though and keeps her stare. "Deanna?" I question a moment later, concerned about her.

I hear footsteps behind her and Spencer comes into view "she's alright, come in Shannon" he smiles putting a hand on his mothers shoulder. His hair is disheveled and he yawns while walking towards me. I wonder if I woke them both up.

She responds to that and blinks while looking up to him "yes, come in." She repeats mechanically, putting her own hand on her sons and squeezing it. She moves aside for me to come in and I do so. I take a few steps into the home and the door shuts behind me.

"Let's go somewhere a little move private" he suggests to me in a low voice so his mother doesn't hear him. I nod my head to agree and he slowly moves away from his mother. She stands there frozen like a sculpture as I walk past her and up the stairs behind him. He moves into one of the bedrooms and closes the door behind me.

I look down at the floor like I'm still looking at Deanna through the wood "is she okay?" I question concerned. I look to him for his answer now and his eyes seems droopier and darker than earlier.

He sighs out heavily "No, she's a wreck right now. We all are." He admits to me. I cock my head to the side and wait for him to tell me more as I can tell he is going to by the way he is biting his lower lip. "Since my brother and dad passed, she's been all over the place. And now with what just happened" he trails off for a moment "I don't know if she's going to come back from it." He opens up, although he looks at me when he tells me this, his eyes are somewhere else.

I step a little closer to him before speaking to try and console him "she will come back from this. She is strong, and she is a leader." He still isn't convinced, so I continue "Without your mother, you know where everyone would be right now?" I ask hoping he'd give me an answer. He doesn't though and continues staring blankly at me "they'd be dead. They would all be dead. Hell, you'd probably be dead too." I say more intensely now trying a different approach. "These walls have been the only thing keeping you all alive!" My tone is aggressive and I regret the darkness of my words once they leave my lips. I take a deep breath to calm myself down before speaking again, this time remaining calm and collected "You know, there's no point to imagine that. We are here now, and we will stay here as long as we can. She needs you to be there for her Spencer." I say grabbing his attention now that my hand has reached out to his arm. His eyes connect to mine being pulled back from his glaze "we all need you right now" I add on for emphasis.

"ok" he finally gets out with a little nod. I put on a smile, keeping my hand on his arm and wait for him to give me one in return. After he does he quickly changes his demeanor "ok, so what's up?" He asks now.

"What do you mean?" I ask confused.

"Why are you here?" He asks with a puzzled look.

I remember then and my face flushes with embarrassment. I don't even know why I wound up there. I know what got me upset, but why I came here, to him instead of someone else, I can't figure out. "I just needed to get away for a bit. This is the only place I knew I could go and still be safe" I tell him. It's not totally a lie but it's a stretch.

He nods once "the Clint thing?" He says raising an eyebrow.

I nod once back this time "you know about that?" I question nervously. If this is getting around town, then Clint could find out that someone from his past his here. My heart picks up with nervousness at the thought.

He must catch on to me panicking because he responds "yes, but don't worry. Rick was telling my mom about and I overheard. I haven't talked to anyone about it." He explains. I nod nervously. He steps closer to me and places his hand on my cheek "I won't say anything" his eyes gleam as they look into mine with sincerity. My stomach turns a little at the obvious affection he's showing to me, Daryl has the hardest time with that, I think to myself. Just after the thought crossed my mind I kick myself for thinking that. Here I am, standing in front of a nice guy who's showing compassion and I'm thinking about Daryl. I push the thought from my head and place my hand on his, letting the warm touch embrace my face. I smile to him and step closer, releasing my hand and wrapping both arms around him. He embraces me in return and I try and get used to the idea of smelling fresh linen verses worn leather.

"You're probably still exhausted, get some rest" spencer whispers to me before letting his arms drop from me. I nod and go to sit on the lounge chair he has in the corner by a television "no, you stay in the bed" he insists before I could sit down.

"No really, I don't mind" I refuse but he's already grabbing my hand and not letting me move forward towards it. I sigh in defeat, too tired to argue further and lay down on his bed. Spencer moves to the lounge chair and puts his head back, closing his eyes. I watch for a few moments as his breath grows short and he drifts off to sleep. It's not until then that I allow myself to close my eyes and sleep.


	30. Lies and Liars

"Morning" a whisper wakes me from sleep and I open my eyes slowly to the sun rising. I look over my shoulder and Spencer is standing at the end of the bed with two mugs in his hand "coffee" he offers me.

Although I don't want to drink it, I accept it with a nod "thanks," I say reaching my hand out for him to pass it. He walks over to the side of the bed and I sit up as I take it from him "and thanks for letting my stay here" I say blowing on the coffee.

He nods, takes a sip of coffee before responding "anytime" he says. "Ricks having a meeting in 10 minutes. My mom wants everyone there whose not on guard." He explains.

"Everyone?" I ask, putting the coffee down on the side table without taking a sip.

"Ya, Clint's on some kind of duty with Abraham but his friend isn't. So you can stay here if you want. I can fill you in after." He offers me understanding my hesitation.

"Thanks, but I can head back to the house and wait there." I say declining.

"Sure" he nods looking away with disappointment.

"Will you walk me back?" I ask him, he's been really nice to me and for some reason I don't want him to be upset with me.

"Of course" he says taking another gulp of his coffee and placing it down on the table next to mine "let's go."

We leave the house, walking next to each other in sync as we make our way to the home. It only takes a few minutes but the morning air is colder than the night before as soon as we get out the door and I shiver with the short sleeves I'm wearing. Spencer takes off the jacket he's wearing and offers it to me. I take it, draping it over my shoulders. We get to the steps and I go to take the jacket "thank you" I say to him

"Hold on to it" he says with a smirk before turning away. I put the jacket back over my shoulders and walk up the steps. "Shannon, hold on" he calls back to me. I turn around and he's almost reached me at the top of the steps. He stops one step below me, still a couple of feet taller than me. I stand there, waiting for whatever it is he wants to say. We stand for mere moments "never mind" he finally says going to turn back around. My head tilts to the side, further confused but he quickly turns back to me "want to have dinner with me?" He mumbles quickly.

"What?" I question not sure I heard him right.

He scratches his head "never mind" he says again turning away. Just then the door opens and Daryl walks out of the house with Carol, Michonne, and Carl.

"Excuse us" Michonne says, leading them past me. I side step and the three of them quickly pass me. I spot Daryl look at me and a snarl crosses his face.

Anger floods me and I speak up quickly "Spencer, wait!" I call to him. At this point he's a few feet away and the three of them are just passing him as his pace was slow. I jog to him "I'd love to have dinner" I say before kissing him on the cheek.

He smirks back to me "I'll get you here at 6" he says, walking away with a smile. I nod and make my way into the house. Even if Daryl didn't see it, he heard it, and the satisfaction I feel overwhelms me. I get into the house and keep myself busy by cleaning some things up.

The house starts to get busy again as whatever meeting Rick held was over. I place myself on the couch, waiting for things to calm down before I ask for the details. However, before everyone gets back, Daryl comes into the house enraged. He stops at the doorway and looks around. When he spots me he takes fast heavy steps towards me before grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the house. As we continue, my anger wells inside, although I'm annoyed he's dragging me away, I don't try and pull my arm from his grasp. Deep down I'm excited to get away from the faces of the house and talk, even if its out of anger. When he eventually stops and releases my arm I start rambling "what the hell, Daryl?! Why are you taking me here?" I spit out, annoyed he'd bring me to the spot he was with last night with a woman.

Instead of answering my question he yells back at me "what the hell is with you and mommas boy over there?" His arm spreads out, pointing in the direction of Spencer's house.

"What were you doing here last night?" I spit back.

The anger is momentarily misplaced with something else but he quickly recovers from it "what'd you hear?" He asks in a low, serious tone.

"Enough to know you're with someone!" I spit back frustrated. "That's what's with Spencer. He actually shows an interest in me, and doesn't sulk around trying to stay mysterious and angry!" I yell at him. He stays standing firmly on the ground, not registering anything else but anger so I keep going "I've wanted nothing more than for you to open up to me, for you to admit that there's something between us. Then I follow you out here and follow you to make sure you're alright, to possibly get another moment alone to talk with you, but instead you're here talking to your girlfriend or whoever she is." I end there, feeling myself get sick as the anger builds. I put a hand to my stomach to try and calm my nerves.

"That's not it" he tries to lie back.

"Don't tell me that's not it! I heard you guys talking. Why would you do that to someone?" I question "why would you do that to me?" I ask the one I really want to know, not letting myself choke up.

"Would you just listen?" He interrupts reaching for my hand frustrated.

"No! You listen, I'm done. I'm not going to wait for you to explain this all away. I'm done trying to get you to open up to me. Forget it, forget all of it. Everything I told you, everything from the woods, I'm done." I demand before storming away. As I retreat back towards to the house I know he won't call for me or follow behind. He is not that type of guy. I storm into the house and collect everything that is mine. It's not much and most of it is already packed in a bag. I leave the house in a hurry, ignoring the looks from everyone in there and anyone trying to talk to me.

I go to another door and wait for Denise to answer "Uhm, hello. Can I help you?" She looks confused.

"Can I stay here?" I ask her as she holds the door slightly closed. I shift my bag behind my shoulder.

"Now is not a good time" she returns back to me, sounding nervous.

I try and look behind her but she closes the door further "oh, okay. Sorry, I just thought—" I say stepping back and away from the door.

"That Rosie?" I hear a mans voice from behind Denise and freeze in place, it's been awhile, but i'll always be haunted by it. However, before I could turn to walk away, Clint is standing behind Denise's smaller frame, his dark eyes connect with mine and a smile crosses his face "well I'll be, if it isn't Shay! How's it going darlin'?" He asks with a grin that makes me sick.


	31. Panic

My knees shake underneath me and it's taking everything I have in me to stay standing and not hurl on my own feet. My brain races through different scenarios as fast as a maglev train but I can't process anything and anything I've ever thought of saying or doing at this moment blurs together "I'd never thought I'd see that beautiful face again." His voice travels from the house through the air.

Denise can obviously tell something is wrong and has the look of a confused puppy on her face "Shay?" She questions.

"No, not this house. You're staying over here" a voice from behind me says and I turn my head slowly, still eyeing Clint but curious to who it is that's coming up. Everything in me is praying it's Daryl, because he'd take care of this right here, right now. However, I see Spencer come into view and although I'm disappointed, I'm relieved it's someone who knows about him and our past. "Denise. I'm sorry, I tried to explain to our new resident where to go but clearly she got lost" he smiles towards the young fill-in doctor. Denise eyes him curiously but luckily Clint is behind her and can't see her face.

Clint's curiosity beams through and he asks "new resident, huh?" one eyebrow raised.

"Stumbled right into me during rounds a few nights ago, haven't had a chance to get her settled with everything that happened." He lies quickly.

"How come nothin' was mentioned at Rick's meetin' this mornin'?" He asks, pushing it further, his lips pursing while he waits for an answer.

"Deanna," he pauses "my mother" he adds on for emphasis "just made the decision with him to let her stay moments after. They both had interviewed her but didn't have a chance to discuss it until afterwards." he explains calmly. "Why are you so curious Cameron?" he asks using the fake name everyone knows him in town by.

I know at this part I have to play along, if I don't, then he'll know we are lying. I raise my eyebrows and throw my eyes at him with a snarl. His eyes stay on mine but he accepts my look and throws his own lie into the mix "well, they had a meetin' bout us, just though it's what was done round here." Although part of me wants to throw something out there about his name being Cameron instead of Clint, I know I shouldn't. He's unpredictable and I don't know what it would make him do.

"Can you show me where I can stay, please?" I grab a hold of Spencer's forearm and squeeze it tightly, but not obvious enough for Clint to tell I'm flustered or anxious.

"Yea, come with me." he says turning away slowly from the house. "See you guys later" he says and I turn with him, keeping my eyes on the evil man for as long as possible before I'm fully turned and my neck can't stay that way anymore.

As we walk away I hear Clint yell out to us "Nice to see you, Shay!" although I tense at his words to me, we ignore it and keep ourselves moving away. Spencer walks me around a corner and we quicken the pace to his house. Once behind closed doors, I fall to my knee's and take deep breaths. "I can't do this! I can't.. he knows.. he knows we are lying and that I've been here this whole time!" I say between the breaths.

"He doesn't know Shannon. Calm down!" He kneels next to me and rubs a hand across my back. I keep trying to take deep breaths but my lungs are feeling closed and the panic continues to build up. My breaths start to get shorter and I feel the space around me close in. "Calm down. You're fine!" Spencer tries to calm me.

"I'm not fine!" I yell back frustrated and scared. I start to rock a little while on the floor as the air gets tighter in my lungs.

"What can I do?" Spencer asks me, realizing I'm not okay.

"Daryl, get Daryl" I plead to him through air gasps. Although he is the last person I want to be around right now, I know he's the only one that will make me feel better, who will make me feel safe.

I can see the disappointment in Spencer's eyes but he nods and lowly says "okay" before standing up and leaving the house quickly. While he's gone, my chest continues to feel heavy and my palms get sweaty. I try to rub them against my jeans but the clamminess just won't go away, all the while making me more anxious about it. I'm not sure how long he's gone for but when he comes back his face is still showing disappointment "he's gone" he says once he's entered and the door is shut. My body goes numb when he says it and I start to see spots through my vision. I've never had a panic attack before and I don't know what to do to get control. I want to escape from my own body and disappear from the Earth. The world's being ripped from underneath me, and I have nothing to hold to anymore.

I'm not sure how long it took, but I'm finally starting to breath more normal and feel parts of myself again. My body is getting movement back as I can feel the pins and needles run up my feet and legs. My lungs start to open up more and I'm not taking as many shallow breaths. The spotty vision and clammy hands are not as bad and I open my eyes to try and further along the pace I'm feeling better at. When I open them, I notice I'm still on the hardwood floor I fell down on earlier. There's a pair of legs covered in jeans on either side of me and my upper arms are being rubbed gently in a slow smooth motion. I sit up a little and realize that I was leaning against someone's chest. When I turn my head, Spencer is the one doing this all. I look up to him and he simply says "it's okay, just relax" and I do just as he says. I let myself fall back onto his chest and follow his arm movements with my breathe. As he continues to slow the pace my heart rate slows as well and everything is feeling normal again.


	32. Release

The front door opens and Deanna walks into her house before freezing at the doorway. She turns her head to the side with confused eyes and asks "Spencer, why are you not with the rest of them?"

At this point he's not rubbing my arms anymore but I'm still resting myself against him. "Shannon and Clint ran into each other" there's a pause "and it wasn't pretty" he explains honestly.

"Then who is with Glenn?" She questions.

"I had Nick go in my place. Someone needed to stay with her" he says, I can tell that he either motioned to me with his eyes or his head.

"Go where? Where is everybody?" I sit up a little bit; now curious to what they are talking about.

"The walker pit problem. The meeting Rick had earlier was to explain the plan and go on a dry run" Spencer says explaining "I was on my way to reschedule dinner but they told me you ran out of there with your things" he adds on.

"Dinner?" Deanna asks and both of us look to her.

"Mom, can we have some privacy please?" Spencer mumbles strongly under his breath, clearly annoyed now by her presence.

She gives us a glare but walks away quickly. I begin to feel the awkwardness of the situation and sit up further away from him. I go to stand up, still exhausted from the panic attack and he helps me. We stand up and wait in silence next to each other, neither of us knowing what to say next. I can't stand the silence and spit out the first thing that comes to mind "so, is dinner off then?" I shrug. Deep down I'm hoping it is, today has already proven to be an exhausting day, and it's not even mid afternoon yet.

"Well, not anymore" he rubs a hand around the back of his neck "unless you want it to be" he adds unsure.

"No, no! It's fine! Dinner will be nice." I assure him I'm okay with it. He smirks softly and I'm glad. He just helped me get through the worst panic attack and the least I could do is eat dinner with him. "You think you can help me find somewhere to stay? I'm not comfortable going back to Rick's house right now" I admit to him. I leave out the part of it being because of Daryl and let him make his own assumptions.

"Why don't you just stay here for today? When Rick and the others get back we can tell him about Clint and we'll sort this out." He suggests.

"Sure" I say, not wanting to get into the details about the fight with Daryl, or suggest staying somewhere else since no one else really knows about me or my history with Clint.

"Follow me" he says and leads us up the stairs. I follow him to his room "you can stay in my room, I'll crash in my brothers.." He trails off, looking towards the empty room that was once for his sibling.

"No, you don't have to give up your room for me.." I say feeling guilty taking it from him. Even worse having him sleep in his dead brothers room. I wouldn't want him to feel uncomfortable.

He shakes his head "it's fine"

"No, really. I can stay on the couch" I insist, not walking into the room.

"Shannon, really. Stay here" he puts his hand on my shoulder to assure me. I nod once with a small smile and walk into the room. "There's clean towels in the closet next to the bathroom, take your time.. I'll get started on dinner" he explains before releasing his hand and walking away.

I walk into the room and put my bag down on the floor by the chair. I plop myself down into the chair and start to silently cry. As the tears fall down I try to figure out the real reason I'm so upset. Running into Clint was bad, but the fact that Daryl wasn't here frightened me more. I've been controlled by men all my life, from my father, Ryan, to the group Joey sold me too. I've made it a point to keep myself guarded, not just from men but from anyone. This group has cracked the walls but Daryl's been the only one to climb over it. I allowed this beautiful disaster of a man into my life and he wasn't there when I needed him. None of them ever were. The idea of Daryl having this amount of control over me is making these tears fall faster.

I decide then to let myself break down and let everything out. The tears turn to sobs and before I realize it, Spencer is knocking on the door "are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I need to do this. Just let me be, please" I manage to get out.

I cry back out of the sobs. I try and contain my crying enough to hear him walk away and when I do I put my head into a pillow and cry louder than before.

It's been a couple of hours when the tears start to dry up and I no longer feel anything. The numbness I've come to know has taken over again and I feel like myself. The self that's been able to survive this apocalypse and the self that will continue to survive. I stand up groggily from all the crying and walk over to the mirror. My face has blotchy red spots all over and my eyes are even more red. Already familiar with the layout of the house, I open the bedroom door and walk across the way to the bathroom. I turn both handles but the warm one a bit more and let it run while I use the bathroom. After washing my hands I throw some water on my face a couple of times. I soak a cloth and re-enter his bedroom. I lay down on his bed and put the cloth over my face, letting myself soak in the moisture.

"Shannon?" I hear a voice on the other end of the door. I sit up, the cloth already off my face and wait to hear it again. I look at the clock and see it's now 7:32. I've slept past dinner time.

"Shit! Spencer! I'm sorry!" I call out through the door and stand up quickly to open it. Except it isn't Spencer but his mother, Deanna. "Oh. Hi" I say stepping back when I realize it's her.

Her eyes are as tired as they have been since the attack and I can tell she hasn't been sleeping "can we talk for a moment?" She asks in a low voice. I nod and step aside allowing her to come into the room. She steps around me and stands in the middle of the room. As she's walking in I peek into the hall but don't see Spencer. I turn to face her and wait for her to begin. She takes a deep breath, but it's not out of anger or frustration. She lets out the breath slowly "now that Clint knows you are here, what do you think we should do about him?" She puts two fingers to the bridge of her nose and holds it tightly.

"I.. I haven't really thought of that.. I guess we can ask Rick what he thinks when they all get back" I hesitate when I speak.

"He.. He uhh.." She says out in a mutter before collapsing onto the floor.

I rush to her aid and kneel down besides her "Deanna!" I expect for her to be passed out, but she's just crying. "Deanna. Talk to me." I say, wanting to console her but unsure of how to do so.

"This is too much. All of this is too much. All those people, all the blood.." She says through sobs. "It's always something to deal with now."

"You don't have to do it alone, Deanna. You have an entire community here to help you." I encourage her, trying to sound as confident as I did when I was encouraging Spencer.

Her sad eyes find mine momentarily and she realized the weakness she has shown. She quickly recovers from it "You are right. I'm not alone" she wipes away any tears from her face and stands up, declining any help from me. I stand next to her awkwardly, pretending to believe she is okay. "Let's keep this moment between us, got that Shannon?" She asks and tells me at the same time.

"Of course" I nod assuring her. "but Deanna, do you need to talk about anything, can I help with anything?" I offer my support.

Her eyes bore into me with something unfamiliar and I can tell she's annoyed with my comments "let's just leave it at that. We will deal with Clint another time" she nods at me before leaving the room.


	33. A Simpler Time

I go downstairs and see Spencer sitting on the couch where his mother once interviewed me writing in a type of book "what you got there?" I ask him, sitting next to him and crossing my feet underneath me.

"Mad libs" he cocks a stupid smile in my direction "give me a plural noun" he says without looking back up.

"Uhm" I try to think of something ridiculous "teacups" I spit out, unsure why that's what I picked.

Although his head doesn't lift up his eyes quickly look to mine with a chuckle "and a school?" he asks, waiting for a response.

My mind goes blank, I haven't thought of schools or anything of that sort for years and I quickly think of anyone I can "LSU" I almost scream, excited I was able to think of one. He focus' his attention back on the paper to fill in the words and I sit in silence waiting to hear the ridiculous results.

"Alright, are you ready?" He asks in a serious voice. I nod to assure him I am "you sure?" he asks holding the paper close to his chest as if it's a big secret.

"YES!" I demand now.

"Alright. Here is a report, by a student council committee." he coughs 2 times as if giving a speech.

"Fellow students of LSU! We the members of the Students for a greasy Society are meeting here to decide what action to take about the Dean of fingers. He has just fired our friend, Professor Rick, because he wore his elbow long, and because he dressed in a shirt and wore hooves. Next week, we are going to protest by taking over the park buildings and kidnapping the Assistant light bulb. We also will demand that all students have the right to wear lumpy hair and lucky beards. Remember our slogan: "Down with teacups."

By the end of the story I am laughing hysterically with tears in my eyes. Spencer even had a hard time reading towards the end because of how much he was laughing. Our laughs carry through the house and eventually they start to subside "that was hilarious" I say in between a breath, my cheeks hurting from smiling.

He nods trying to catch his own "I forgot how fun these things could be" he looks to me and I nod back agreeing. Suddenly his head is leaning down towards mine and our lips meet. I begin to kiss him back, soft and gentle as his hand goes to my cheek. I realize how smooth his lips are compared to Daryl's and then push myself away.

"I'm sorry" I say after pulling away, feeling bad for leading him on.

"For what?" He asks with concern in his eyes. Our faces are still inches a part and I can smell the strawberries on his breath.

I stay still, thinking of what to say "I just.. I'm so confused" I explain. It's not totally untrue. I am confused, confused on how things are between Daryl & I. Although I'm trying to push past his control over me, I still have feelings for him and what if he has feelings for me?

"It's alright, I'll wait" he smiles with a glistening in his eye.

"I'm sorry I missed dinner" I decide since I'm apologizing I could actually apologize for what I came downstairs for "I just over slept, I didn't realize how tired I was" I tell him the truth.

He shrugs it away with a wave of his hand "it's fine, there's left overs still out if you want some" he returns.

"Thanks" I say back. We sit in the silence and I still feel bad for missing dinner so I come up with something to try and make up for it "hey, want to go for a walk around the town with me?" I ask. I know it's nothing special, but a nice walk in public, maintaining my sanity around Clint might show Spencer that I'm not crazy.

"You sure that's a good idea?" He asks with raised eyebrows.

"I already ran into him once and I'm still standing." I repeat "besides, I have you to protect me" I nudge him in the side.

"Sure do" he smiles back before standing up "let's go" he reaches out his hand for me to take and I do. We walk out of the house hand in hand and he releases my hand once we are at the bottom of the steps. Oddly enough I didn't feel strange about us holding hands and wish he held it for a little bit longer. We walk forward slowly in sync and I look up to the night sky, enjoying what stars I can see. "You know, I don't know much about you from before the break out." he says, also looking up at the night sky.

"well, it wasn't a glorious life. I had crappy parents. One who beat me and the other who allowed it to happen and I got out just in time for the world to go to shit" I sum it up quickly.

"Oh, I'm sorry" he is looking at me now "so it's not much better now then it was then, huh?" he asks.

"Actually, things are better here then they've ever been before, if you could believe that" I reply, truly believing that.

"Even with Clint around?" He asks lowly.

When I go to open my mouth and respond something from a far stops me. I close my mouth shut and make a point to try and listen closer. I hear someone shouting something from a distance but can't make out where it's coming from "you here that?" I ask Spencer in a whisper.

He nods back, looking around to find the source. As seconds tick by, the words become more clear "OPEN THE GATE! OPEN THE GATE! OPEN THE GATE, NOW!!" a man's voice is yelling. Before the third sentence is said we are dashing through the town to the gate to see what the commotion is about.

"it sounds like Rick!" I shout over my shoulder to Spencer as I am a bit farther ahead as we run forward.

We reach the gate and he's still shouting "OPEN IT! OPEN IT NOW!" Spencer, Maggie and I quickly open the 2 doors to the outside and Rick basically pushes past us to get inside. As soon as his feet cross over he's shouting something different "CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT!" but we already are after seeing what was coming behind him. As soon as the gate is locked, bodies start to ram into the wall trying to get through. The 4 of us stare at the wall, too afraid to move. Rick's heavy breathing is the only thing we can hear along side the mumbling and grumbling of the dead.

Everyone begins to pile into the streets and over to where we are standing. As the crowd gets bigger inside and outside the walls, Rick knows he has to say something. Deanna steps through the crowd with the same tired eyes from earlier and waits for him to address everyone. "You can hear it. Some of you saw it" He pauses, letting everyone hear the dead pound on the wall. His voice is loud enough to carry through the square, but not so loud that he's yelling. "They got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us 20 deep." At this point, people start to panic, and mumble to themselves and those around them. "Look, I know you're scared. You haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this. But we're safe for now. The panel the truck hit seems intact. We reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall's gonna hold together. Can you?" He asks, staring directly into the eyes of Deanna before slowly moving to look at everyone else's whose closest to him. He looks at me last, and as if reading my mind goes on "The others, they're gonna be back. They're gonna be back. Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're gonna lead 'em away, just like the others." He says explaining to me and Rosita mostly, knowing we're concerned, I can tell he believes what he is saying by the determination in his eyes and find some comfort in it. "And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk back through the front gate after. They know what they're doing, and we know what we need to do." He looks at Maggie with force, assuring her of Glenn's safety. "We keep noise to a minimum." he says now to the town "Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out. We'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on. This place is a graveyard."

**Author's Note:**

> Daryl will be introduced into the story in a few chapters!


End file.
